


This Must be the Place

by spaghettifi



Series: Human After All [1]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure & Romance, Canon Compliant, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2021-01-25
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 29,816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26459323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaghettifi/pseuds/spaghettifi
Summary: "He could see, not through his own memories, but Donna’s. Something was wrong, he was somewhere else, how could he be here as well? Donna’s memories explained that too.Metacrisis."After Rose and the Metacrisis Doctor are left in Pete's World, they both have some catching up to do. The Doctor has to adjust to ordinary life, and Rose has to adjust to a not-so-ordinary Doctor.This is mostly me just doing some wish fulfillment. (I'm not an expert writer or anything oop-)Uses information from Siege of Big Ben and Flight into Hull. You don't have to read them though i just like some stuff in it.
Relationships: Metacrisis Tenth Doctor & Rose Tyler, Metacrisis Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler
Series: Human After All [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2009863
Comments: 10
Kudos: 26





	1. Dårlig Ulv-Stranden

The wheezing sound of the TARDIS dematerialising is a comforting sound. One that brings a sense of home to it’s owner and inhabitants. This time though, the sound is a goodbye. Both Rose and the Doctor know full well they’ll never see that blue police box ever again. Nor will they see its owner. For the Doctor this is a mixed bag of emotions, losing the one permanent fixture in his life forever is a kind of devastation you can’t put into words. But at the same time, he finally has some time to spend with Rose. A lot of time. Rose’s emotions are somewhere so muddled she can hardly tell how she feels. On one hand, the Doctor and TARDIS are gone forever, but on the other hand, another Doctor is right next to her, with a new TARDIS. There is a silence between them, broken only by the sound of Jackie yammering away on the phone to her husband.

“Rose?” Doctor’s familiar voice breaks the silence. His face has a look of concern. She jolts a little, but looks over at the Doctor. She inspects his face again, as if she doesn’t believe he’s real. The look of doubt in her eyes is the same as that Christmas, years ago. Back when she was still carefree. The Doctor remembers that look as clear as day, and he remembers the fear it creates within him.

“Blimey, it’s bloody cold isn’t it? Out of all the beaches to drop us on, it had to be the cold one!” Jackie shouts with her usual tone of voice.

“I suppose it’s not that bad, at least there’s a café up the road we can wait in” Rose says. She remembers that café clearly. She spent a good while there, crying over a blueberry muffin. The Doctor nods.

“Well, no time to waste, longer we wait here, the higher chance we have of getting hypothermia” he says.

“Takes a bit more than some cold weather to get hypothermia” Jackie scoffs.

“Feels like I already have it, how do you humans cope with such weird body temperatures?” He asks. Pulling a petulant face, like a child.

“Well, Mr Meta-whatsist, you’re gonna have to toughen up, cause England is bloody cold” Jackie says. _She’s enjoying this_ the Doctor thinks.

“Isn’t that just wizard” he mutters. Rose gives him a confused look.

“Wizard? You sound like Donna” she smirks a little.

“Well, I inherited a bit of Donna in the metacrisis” He replies, with a big toothy grin. Rose smiles and shakes her head. _What a combination_ , she thought to herself affectionately. Donna had grown on her for the short time they had known each other. She was glad that the Doctor had someone like her to travel with.

“Come on then. We can talk properly once we’re out of the cold.” She pulls the Doctor’s hand, and together with her mum, they all trudge up the hill and towards the run down café.

When they scale the hill and wander to the front door, the Doctor looks around at the few people populating the cheap outdoor tables. One pair is an elderly couple, sitting together in serenity, looking out at the sea. The Doctor imagines himself and Rose in fifty years. Life gets significantly slower when you’re old, at least for humans. He can barely imagine _retiring_. Inside the dingy café, a sullen barista mans the counter. Faded beach photos and an old calendar adorn the walls. The glass case contains pastries, the standard kind, made in some factory and baked in the café’s oven. Jackie orders two tarts, one strawberry and one custard. She is sorely tempted to get another for herself, but she’s been on a diet lately. Rose lingers at the door, attempting to find a suitable table. Most are either small and rickety, or squished in close to another customer. Seeing a suitably isolated table, she beckons to the Doctor, and slumps down in the chair. It wobbles when she leans forward, obviously not very level with the ground. The Doctor takes the chair next to her. He goes to lean forward as well, but stops halfway, as the table has no room.

“There you go love, I got some tarts. Not as good looking as the ones near us mind you, but better than nothing” Jackie says gently, a hand on Rose’s shoulder. Rose smiles in response, resting her head on her mums hand.

“Now love, you can rest on the zeppelin. Best not fall asleep here, we’re going in a few hours, and you’re a monster to wake up” Jackie removes her hand, taking a seat in the remaining chair.

“I forgot about the zeppelins! Maybe this time we won’t have to save the world from evil geniuses eh?” The Doctor jokes. Rose lets out a tired snort.

“Hope not, after all they’ll have to deal with me, and even the Cybermen can’t stop me from getting a good night’s sleep in my bed” Rose mutters, before leaning forward, pressing her forehead against the cool plastic of the table. The Doctor smiles affectionately, before reaching for the custard tart. He hadn’t realised how _hungry_ he was. He had never been this starving, the dry pastry and sickeningly sweet custard did help. A little.

“Humans. You all eat so much unnecessary sugar. No wonder you die so early” He mutters.

“Watch it, you’re just like us now. You have to deal with human issues, _Lord of Time_ ” Rose jokes, lifting her face just enough to show her eyes. The Doctor feels comforted that he can maintain the same easy conversation with Rose and Jackie, it shows that they still trust him. He doubts that they trust him fully, but that’s natural. Honestly, he expected more resistance. They both know that they need to have a serious conversation But Rose has already put it on her mental to do list. She has no brainpower, now that the last years have finally caught up with her. Eventually, despite Jackies repeated attempts to prevent it, Rose falls asleep. Her face on the table, and her tart untouched.

“Ooh. I’m tempted by that tart, but I’m on a diet. You want it?” Jackie says, gesturing to the lone strawberry tart. The Doctor nods enthusiastically, almost swallowing it whole.

“You’re just like my Tony.” Jackie says quietly. She seems to soften when talking about him. The Doctor angles his head curiously, mouth still full of tart.

“He’s always talking, you know. Never sits still. I should introduce you, I dunno how you are with kids though. Born from blood and anger and all that” She continues. Probably not expecting a response.

“Not to interrupt or anything, but when is the zeppelin arriving?” The Doctor asks. Feeling a little tired, and sick of the dingy café.

“Pete’s borrowing it from a mate at UNIT. So it should be another couple hours. I reckon we start walking into town half an hour before, there’s a zeppelin port there for all the rich folks. They all have cabins around here” She sighs. Hours in this café are not particularly appealing to either of them. 

“So Jackie, what am I gonna do when we get to London?” The Doctor asks, the question hadn’t crossed his mind until now. He didn’t now where he would live, sure if Rose let him, he could live with her, but she hadn’t said anything yet. Jackie sighs.

“I hadn’t thought of that, you might have to speak with Pete. He’ll arrange stuff for you. You could always join UNIT though” She replies. This is not her area of expertise, but she expected questions like this. It was good to see that the Doctor hadn’t changed _that_ much.

“UNIT? I thought you were all in Torchwood?” He asks. For once not knowing more than Jackie.

“Yeah, we were. But Harriet Jones merged us with the Preachers and now we’re all one organisation. Makes life much easier though.” The Doctor almost grimaces at the mention of Harriet Jones, but this universe’s Harriet could be different. And he thought he might have forgiven the other Harriet anyway, after all, she did play a part in saving the universe. He nods to acknowledge Jackie.

“I used to work at UNIT. Long time ago though, different face” He remarks, remembering his friends from his old workplace. He couldn’t use the TARDIS back then, so he used a car instead. He almost groans remembering how _boring_ cars were going to be for the rest of his life. Still, cars had their good points. Like you can customise it at least, and it didn’t require nearly as much brainpower. Jackie says nothing. For once, two of the most talkative people in the universe were perfectly content with sitting silently together. Not much talking happened after that, the next two hours passed surprisingly quickly, even with virtually nothing to do. The Doctor passed time within his own head, processing the events of the last few hours of his life. Jackie chattered on the phone to various friends, telling them she was ok, and that yes, she’ll be there for dinner on Saturday.


	2. Home

“Oh! I never knew how much I’d miss London!” Jackie sighs, while stepping into the Tyler’s house. The Doctor, Pete, Jackie and Rose had all just spent a few tired hours together on a borrowed Zeppelin. If Jackie wasn’t haranguing the Doctor or Pete about something, they all tried to get some sleep or relax. Unfortunately Rose had been unceremoniously awoken from her nap at the café and spent all her time being annoyed at anyone who disturbed her attempt to return to sleep. The Tyler’s house was different to the house last time, it was a two story house near the centre of London, not looking outwardly big, but extending back far enough to be classified as a pretty big house.

“New house I see.” The Doctor remarks.

“It’s closer to UNIT, and the old house doesn’t have great memories” Pete responds. A dark look crosses his face for a second, and there is a collective awkward silence.

“Anyway, come on in and I’ll fix us all a cuppa. What we all need after saving the universe right?” Jackie smiles stiffly, most likely not wanting to think of the demise of her counterpart. Pete trailed after Jackie into the kitchen, looking quite exhausted himself. This left the Doctor and Rose standing in the hallway. Neither knew what to say to the other. Rose glances up at the Doctor, mouth opening as if she was going to say something, but she swiftly closes it again.

“This is certainly an upgrade from the Powell Estate” The Doctor jokes, a bit awkwardly.

“I suppose so, yeah” she replies, a bit tersely. She wants to have a serious talk, to clear her addled brain. But the front hallway of her house is not the place she would prefer to have a serious conversation.

“Can we go somewhere else later. I think we need to-“

“Talk. Yes, I gathered that” The Doctor finishes her sentence for her. She smiles and shakes her head a little.

“Sometimes I wonder if you’re psychic, it’s like you always know what to say” He beams at her and winks.

“Maybe I am” he says, in a mysterious tone. She can’t help but laugh, even though there is the looming weight of the future between them, she can still rely on him to cheer her up.

“Rose! Can you do me a favour and call Beryl? Tony’s staying with her, and I figured he could come home now” Jackie shouts from the kitchen. Rose reaches into her front pocket and pulls out her mobile phone. She punches in a few numbers. The phone rings for a few minutes before Beryl picks it up.

“Hey Beryl, Mum told me to-“ she starts talking, only to be interrupted. She forgot how _chatty_ Beryl was. She asks question after question _How are you? How’s your mum? Your mother hasn’t answered my calls do you know how worried I was? What about Tony?_

“Beryl, I just needed to tell you that Mum’s back now, so if you could drop Tony off, that’d be great thanks.” She immediately ends the call. Beryl was one of her mum’s closest friends, she was very nice, but she was a real chatterbox.

“Beryl should be on her way soon!” Rose shouts down the hallway. Then, she leads the doctor into a spacious living room, with two large sofas, in a dark blue velvet and a sleek glass coffee table.

“Sit.” Rose said, gesturing to the larger of the two sofas. The Doctor did exactly that, plonking down on the sofa, and propping his feet up on the coffee table. A little of the sand on his shoes sprinkled onto the glass. Rose sighed and sat cautiously on the sofa next to him.

“Mum’s gonna kill you when she sees you got sand on our coffee table.” Rose smirked. The Doctor immediately shifted his feet off the table, and swept off the sand granules. Even Daleks couldn’t compare to his fear of an angry Jackie Tyler. It would be a shame to die before it had even been a week since he was ‘born’. As they both sat awkwardly on the sofa, they could hear Jackie approaching from the sounds of her enthusiastically recounting the adventure they had just come home from. When they enter the room, Pete is nodding silently, while Jackie blabbers about how she helped save the world from daleks.

“Now, we only have store bought biscuits, and the tea is just standard bag stuff, but it’s the best I could do” Jackie says. The Tyler house hasn’t got a massive stock of food, as the house is mainly there for a place to rest and a home for Tony. Rose had never spent much time doing anything but working on the dimension cannon or helping with taking down the remainders of Cybus, so she spent most of her time outside of the house. Jackie had constantly bugged her about it, though more for her daughter’s mental state rather than her living situation. Now that Rose was stuck here forever, she supposed she would have to find a place to live, maybe even with this new Doctor. She glances over at him, trying to picture what kind f life that would be for him. Even if they had a piece of TARDIS, there was no telling what five years of mundanity could do to this new, unpredictable version of the Doctor. Though this would have to be something she would have to wait and see, after all, she can’t see the future.

“You got Jammie Dodgers! Oh that’s wizard!” The Doctor exclaims. Rose, knowing that the Doctor can and will get excited over things less interesting than a jam filled biscuit is not surprised, but mildly entertained. Having him make his usual quips eases the doubts she harbours when she looks at the new Doctor. After an hour or so of chatting and drinking tea, A knock sounds on the front door of the house.

“That must be Beryl, I’ll get it” Rose pushes herself up off the sofa. She doesn’t feel lie having a chat with Beryl or anything, but seeing her little brother again is something she has been looking forward to. When she opens the door, she is greeted with an enthusiastic hug around her waist.

“Hey there little man! How’ve you been?” She asked, in a considerably higher pitched voice than usual. _Why do humans do that?_ The Doctor thought to himself. While Tony was frantically recounting his numerous “adventures” he had been having at Beryl’s house, The Doctor studied Tony. He noticed the resemblance to Jackie, but what was even more apparent was how similar he looked to Pete. For one mad moment, he considers what a child with Rose would look like, before shaking his head. He hardly even knew if she wanted to associate with him anymore.

“Rosie? Who’s that man?” Tony asks, pointing a stubby finger at the Doctor.

“He’s the Doctor I told you about, remember?” She says, gently. The fact that Rose referred to him as the Doctor calms his anxieties a little. Then he is assaulted in a barrage of questions about aliens, spaceships and time travel.

“Is it true that you fought big green fart monsters?” Tony asked. Hearing a child refer to the Slitheen as “big green farty monsters” makes the Doctor crack up laughing. Rose can’t help but laugh along as well, remembering how simultaneously terrifying and hilarious the whole experience was.

“Oi! Your mother fought them too. And they are certainly not funny, I almost died!” Jackie snarls. Pete looks mildly bemused, but not fully understanding of what was happening. Rose bites her lip in an attempt to stop laughing, and lifts Tony into her arms. She ruffles his red-brown hair.

“This one heard about the Nanogenes in London and couldn’t sleep for weeks!” She exclaims, Tony looks mildly embarrassed, but mostly still content. For the majority of his childhood, stories about the Doctor and Rose’s adventures had been a fun bedtime story. The Doctor can’t help but feel a pang of affection thinking about Rose recounting their adventures to her baby brother.

“Speaking of London, tomorrow you should both go shopping. You both need new clothes and I need some housewares” Jackie says, giving Rose a pointed look. Rose shrugs and nods. The Doctor realises that he only has the clothes on his back and the contents of his pockets, which did not consist of much.

“You can use my account, just don’t go too overboard please, I only have so much” Pete says.

“Roger that, I won’t buy anything Le Creuset” Rose smiles, before passing Tony over to her mother.

“Anyway, you need to get some sleep, especially if Beryl’s been taking care of you, she’s rubbish with bedtime.” Jackie coos at Tony. She takes him out of the front living room and disappears down the hallway and up the stairs. Pete mumbles something about helping Jackie and doing dishes. So that leaves Rose and The Doctor in the room together. The Doctor gestures for Rose to sit back down, and she does. She sighs heavily, knowing that her parents left her alone to talk. She doesn’t know how to start this conversation.

“I-“ Rose starts to talk, but before she can say anything, The Doctor interrupts her.

“I know this must be a bit awkward for you, given what happened on the beach. But first of all, I just wanted to tell you, that regardless of how you feel about this version of me. I would do anything to make you happy, even if you want me to go and never come back. So, please don’t be dishonest with me, yeah?” He looks her straight in the eye when saying this, almost like he’s been practicing saying it. Her eyes widened, The Doctor was rarely ever so clear and to the point.

“I wasn’t going to just send you off like some kind of unwanted visitor…” she mumbles. She is almost speechless at how warm the Doctor’s words made her feel. He looks at her with what could best be described as puppy dog eyes. The surreal feeling of having the Doctor be there but also not there is overwhelming.

“I’ve just got to get used to you, cause I know you’re still you, I can tell. It’s just a bit weird, knowing that you’re also out there in the other universe without me. I’ve spent three years trying to get to you, and you’re here now, even if you’re also not. I guess I just need some time, you know?” She says, not feeling like she is making sense at all. The Doctor almost feels like there’s an invisible tug on his single heart. He looks down at Rose with a sort of familiar fondness.

“Well if you need time to get used to me, I’ll give you all the time I have. It’s always belonged to you anyway, ever since I met you” He replies, in a soft and reassuring voice. Rose feels a single tear roll down her cheek, whether it was joy, or her finally starting to accept that The Doctor in his TARDIS was gone, she didn’t know. But that tear seemed to snap an invisible tether, and she soon felt herself sobbing into her hands. Her mascara was staining the salty water grey. The Doctor only watches for a few seconds, before gently reaching over and bridging the gap between them. He rests one hand on her shoulder, and the other in her soft hair. For once, he says nothing. He feels tears rolling down his face too, because even though he is here with Rose, he also has no TARDIS, not yet. And the other version of him has the TARDIS, but no Rose, and soon to be no Donna. When Rose hears the sound of the Doctor whimpering slightly, she shifts away from him and looks him in the eyes, there is a silent understanding. And she reaches over and softly kisses his forehead.

“I have no idea how you manage to understand me so well, Rose Tyler. I was scared we’d be arguing for yonks!” He tries to sound jovial, like usual. She gives him a tearful smile.

“Yeah well, you know me. I’m just fantastic” she laughs a little when she remembers that first time she met this face. The similarities to this situation don’t pass her by.

“We never got to see Barcelona didn’t we?” He says, as if remembering just now. It’s a shame, Barcelona was an incredible sight. She smiles even wider at that.

“Well, there’s always Spanish Barcelona, significantly less alien. But it’s only a short flight away”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took agessssss to write, cause i wanted to make it just right, and I didn't want to make it too short. Anyway, I hope anyone reading this enjoys :)  
> Also if anyone is bothered by the formatting of the text, I'm so sorry, I'll try fix it for the next few chapters and go back and fix these. I paste the chapters in from word, so the formatting doesn't always stick


	3. A New Life

The next day, The Doctor finds himself in a crowded department store. He had always had a fascination with human shopping, and nowhere was this obsession more apparent than in a giant, multi storey hell. What was it with humans and making every retail experience as soul draining as possible? He had been to markets in anti gravity, where you shopped among the stars. Now he was sandwiched between Rose and someone’s elderly relative in an aisle full of stand mixers.

“What do you think Doctor, blue or red?” Rose asks, pointing to a large, shiny mixer.

“Blue for sure. Red’s just so aggressive” The Doctor replies, plus he was fond of a nice shade of blue, it always reminded him of the TARDIS. Thinking about the old girl gave him a pang of sadness. Rose reaches up and hauls a large box into her arms. It’s almost half the size of her. She was starting to regret not grabbing a trolley. They hadn’t even reached the menswear section, but that was always the least crowded area of the store.

“Bloody hell! This is like going against a river!” The Doctor cursed under his breath. Going from travelling in the TARDIS to navigating crowds in _Selfridges_ was a very sobering reality. Rose was a little more adjusted to the mundanity, having worked in a similar store, but she still hated the place. It didn’t take long for them to navigate the different floors until they were surrounded by brown and black garments.

“There you go Doctor, take your pick” Rose gestured as if she was presenting the entire store to him. He looked around, there wasn’t a whole lot of interesting clothing, mostly the kind of stuff boring people wore to work. Although, the ties looked promising. Rose was rifling through racks of plain shirts, grabbing a few in white, and a couple in other pale shades. He decided that since Rose seemed to already know what to get him, he could focus on the more interesting things, like shoes. Just when he thought of shoes, he saw the rack of socks, each with a distinctive pattern and colour scheme. It must have been destiny, these socks were made for him. Rose looked over and saw him admiring the socks, and couldn’t help but snort.

“You all right there? I wouldn’t think that you could get so excited about socks!” She laughed, he gave her a smirk.

“It’s the little things!” he replied, grabbing almost every single variety of sock. The next hour was mostly spent on collecting other essential items, like t-shirts and pants, as well as various jackets. The Doctor also discovered a glorious pair of pyjamas with a matching TARDIS blue dressing gown. The Doctor had taken the large mixer box from Rose, as she was also carrying a pile of clothes. This was nothing compared to the TARDIS wardrobe, but it was a formidable pile of stuff.

“Do I really need all this?” The Doctor asked, realising that all of this was coming out of Pete’s bank account. Back in the TARDIS, he hadn’t worried about anything like finances. Well, this was the first step into a life of mundanity.

“Doctor? Let’s go pay for all this stuff, I wanna get out of here” Rose said, bumping shoulders with the Doctor, he had spaced out, thinking about his new boring life. He jolted, and nodded in agreement. He was glad to be leaving this awful beige prison. He also looked forward to wearing new clothes, because currently, he felt dirty in the old clothes he still had on. Rose lead him through the store, mirroring how he used to lead her around the entire universe. The process of paying was quick, the cashier didn’t make conversation. Outside the store, Rose carried three large plastic bags, and the Doctor carried the mixer box. Navigating on the tube was going to be a nightmare. Rose steeled herself, knowing that the fifteen minute tube ride and five minute walk would use all her energy today.

“Blimey, not used to having to travel like this” The Doctor breathed, almost repulsed by how close his face was to some random stranger’s stomach. They smelled like old sushi, and they were only a few centimetres away from falling onto him. Rose felt a strange sense of satisfaction, the Doctor was finally getting a taste of Earth life. She felt a strange feeling, not dissimilar to the one she felt on that Christmas day, when the Doctor regenerated into a completely different man. She had never told him, but on those early travels, she had not entirely trusted the new Doctor, and it was similar now. She knew that it was him, but at the same time, she knew that the other Doctor had left without a goodbye on that beach in Norway. Thinking about it hurt her head, and it was guilt inducing. The Doctor had left this version of himself for her, he had done it so that she could be happy. As much as the pain of losing the TARDIS and her way of life with the Doctor hurt, she realised that he was hurting just as much, and needed her. It was the only thing left she could do for the both of them.

“Rose? You spaced out, we’re almost there” The Doctor’s voice interrupts her thoughts, like a pin in a balloon. She braces herself for the tube station, it is possible that getting off the tube is worse than getting on. Well, she’s faced worse things.

“Brace yourself Doctor. You may faced the Devil, but you haven’t experienced the hell that is getting of a tube during the weekend” Rose smirked, The Doctor grins back.

“Oh I’m terrified. Not to worry though, you’re here to guide me through” his broad smile to her is a feeling akin to eating fairy floss. There are advantages to carrying large bags of stuff though, like the extra personal space it gives you. Shame that the plastic really digs into your fingers after a while. The doors open, and like water, people flood through the doors. Rose and the Doctor almost don’t need to walk, they are pushed by the crowd. There is a little more space when they get to the gates, but it’s still a squeeze. _This might be worse than the department store_ , the Doctor thought to himself. Train stations really expose the core of humanity’s evil. Everyone always shoving everyone else. He would voice this thought, but it would result in more than a few unfriendly stares.

The walk home from the train station was quiet, they were on a peaceful road. The Doctor, despite last night’s long talk with Rose, still felt nervous that she didn’t trust him. He focused on not dropping the strangely heavy box, rather than on talking. It was a struggle.

“Doctor, everything all right?” Rose asked, her brow furrowed with concern. She assumed it might be something to do with the fact that the last three hours had been spent in the Doctor’s own personal hell. He nodded, still not saying anything. This was odd, and it immediately suggested that he was lying, and not even trying to hide it.

“I know we talked about this last night, but I can’t stop thinking about it. I can’t stop thinking about him. The other me” The Doctor sort of half babbled. Rose gulped, she had tried to expel thoughts about this subject, assuming that the problem was at least mostly solved. But she knew that this would be a long adjustment period.

“Don’t worry, I feel the same way, you know” Rose said, with a half smile, it was going to hurt for a while, thinking about her Doctor, both here and there. Together with her and also not.

“Oh, does that mean you don’t-“ The Doctor asked, paranoid that she was somehow ejecting him. He was not good at this kind of emotional talk. This was nothing like the regeneration, cause the other him, the one she preferred was still out there, just out of reach.

“Doctor” Rose turned to face him, giving him a serious look. He started.

“I know that this is hard for the both of us, it’s especially hard for me cause I’m not used to this. I know it’s hard, but I know it’s still you. I could hardly believe it for a bit, but I know for sure that this is exactly the kind of stunt you would pull. Sure you’ve changed a little, but so have I.” Rose said with a seriousness that he rarely heard from her. He could see how much she had changed and matured in his absence. The kind of happy glow that she used to have was gone, replaced by a sort of melancholy look in her eyes. He could still recognise the 19 year old shop girl, so happy and carefree during their time together. She was still there, just in the past, like his first self. They both had changed together, she must have realised that too. They both had the sort of wordless understanding of each other. After a few minutes, Rose looked as if she had snapped out of a trance

“Oh yeah, I have to show you UNIT soon. I know you hate the guns and military stuff, but you’ll love the new office” Rose grinned mischievously. She knew that would cheer him up a bit.

“Well it looks like you’ll be showing me around for a change, I could get used to this” The Doctor smiled back, linking his free arm through Rose’s. He had missed little things like this. He had missed her grin, and the way she looked when she thought about something. He missed the way she had understood, and come to trust him again after his regeneration. He knew that was why the other him has entrusted her with this new version of himself. He must have known that she would be happier this way, even if he could have stolen her away to walk through the stars again. He would always be grateful to the other him for that sacrifice, even if he was also angry. He sighed, feeling the tension from the day’s shopping drain away. Rose glanced up at him, she rarely saw him so at peace, though she knew that it wouldn’t last. It had hardly been a week since the events of the crucible, and there was still lots to do. At least that aspect of her life hadn’t changed. She rarely relaxed or had days of doing nothing. For the last few years, she had done nothing but try and get back to the man standing next to her. But she still felt a strange sense of emptiness, it was as if she hadn’t expected this, and the reality hadn’t sunken in yet. She needed to do something to distract herself. She’d probably do some more studying, she had started to enjoy doing studies in physics. She had gotten a degree in it while she was here, but even then she still always loved learning something new. For now she needed to get the large clothing bags home in one piece, and make sure the Doctor didn’t break the new mixer. When they did stroll up to the front door of the Tyler’s townhouse, she had stretched the handles of the plastic bags significantly. There were also nail marks in her palm. The Doctor seemed to be waiting for her to go in first. It was unusual that he hadn’t said anything, it wasn’t like the human side of him was quiet. He and Donna both had right gobs on them, he seemed to be slightly off. She wasn’t in the mood for another heart to heart though, she just wanted a cup of tea, and the comfort of facts. Unchanging and straightforward facts. She let herself into the house, and left the big bags sitting just out of the way in the hallway. Without thinking about it, she immediately strided into the kitchen, forgetting the Doctor for a few seconds in her tiredness. He stood awkwardly, not really knowing whether to come in or not.

“Is that you love? Can you fetch me a cuppa while you’re still up?” Rose heard Jackie shout from the living room. The Doctor, not really knowing what to do , followed Rose, and tried to assist with making tea. It wasn’t exactly difficult though, and Rose swatted him away as he was more a hindrance than help. She holds the mismatched mugs in her hands, careful not to spill hot tea on the freshly cleaned tiles. The Doctor continues trailing after her. In the living room, Jackie is reading a magazine, she grabs the cup almost without looking. The Doctor almost considered Jackie Tyler a whole new formidable species.

“Thanks love, why don’t you take the shopping up to the guest room for now?” Jackie says, gesturing to the shopping bags visible through the doorway. Rose sighed and turned back around to haul the bags up the stairs, but the Doctor could tell she was exhausted, so he went ahead, and grabbed them for her.

“You don’t know where the guest room is!” Rose protested, but he was already off and up the stairs. She debated leaving hm to cause chaos around the house in favour of her study, but she decided for the benefit of her family she would follow after him. She trudged up the stairs, and could hear the Doctor thumping around. He was in fact in the guest room.

“I’m surprised you found it first try” She said, smiling. He smirked back at her

“I’m over 900 years old, I have a talent for finding things.” He said, raising an eyebrow in an attempt to look mysterious. She took a step into the room, and went over to help unpack the clothes. It was the closest she had intentionally been to him all day. He felt his face heat up a bit. Being in such close proximity to Rose reminded him of the kiss on Bad Wolf Bay. It also reminded him of how he wanted to repeat the experience. But he was of no help fantasising, so he attempted to try and organise the assorted clothing items instead. He was awful at it. Rose sighed a little, like a mother does at a slightly incompetent child.

“Do you want to try stuff on? No offense, but your clothes must be getting a bit rank” She nodded at his blue suit.

“How forward of you, I only just arrived here and we’re already changing in front of each other” He smirked. Rose was startled, and a blush blossomed on her cheeks. She couldn’t help laughing, it was the first time she’d laughed properly in ages. He laughed at the joy of seeing her so happy, for the next minute, they just revelled in the joy of each other’s company. Once Rose stopped laughing, she looked over at the Doctor, they had both slumped onto the ground next to each other. He leaned against the bed, and she was less than a metre away. He looked back at her, and took the opportunity to study her face, he had missed every detail, but he especially missed her smile. He reached out to touch her, as if he was checking to see if this was real, and when his hand cupped her cheek, she leaned into it. She laid her hand over his, and came closer to him. Her other hand ruffled his hair, so it stuck up in all different directions. The Doctor had incredible time sense, but the moment that followed felt like an eternity. Rose was the first to break the stillness, she leaned ever so slightly closer to him, and he gently pulled her face close to his. They were centimetres apart, its felt like they had finally torn down the walls of those two universes. The Doctor closed the distance between them, as he had wanted to do for years. He kissed her, and it felt perfect, every other time had never been as true as this. Rose pulled away, and for a second he thought he had made a mistake, but she just smiled at him. The bright smile that he had always equated with the golden light of the sun. Though the sun was quite a small star, she was certainly not small and insignificant to him. He grinned back, happy to be even a piece of space junk in her orbit.

“Hello” She murmured softly, almost breathing it onto his skin. He planted a light kiss on her cheek, and the promptly sprung up.

“Right! I should change into some of my new digs” He says, half stumbling over to the half organised pile. Rose was a bit shocked

“Do it in the en suite, then you can model for me” Rose grinned, she felt a bit revitalised after having a laugh.

“Prepare to be blinded by my incredibly good looks” He winked at her, before taking a bundle of clothes into the bathroom and closing the door. Rose climbed up onto the double bed, curling her feet beneath her. She discarded her jacket onto the floor. In remarkably quick time, The Doctor had already managed to put on an outfit already. He wore an outfit similar to the brown one she had last seen on Bad Wolf Bay.

“An oldie but a goodie, wouldn’t you agree?” he smirked, it was a bit ridiculous, with his hair still sticking up in all different directions. Rose giggled at the sight, and he looked confused

“What?” he asked, his inflection going a bit high pitched. Rose pointed at his hair, and he patted it down a bit with one hand. He almost looked sheepish for a second. Her smile grew a little bigger at that, and the Doctor felt his cheeks warm significantly. Here he was, more than 900 years old, acting like a lovestruck teenager. Rose felt rather similar, admiring the Doctor, taking in the fact that he was here, and would be for the rest of her life. They stood across the room from each other, the Doctor weighing up the choice of trying on more clothes or flopping down on the bad beside Rose. He decided that clothing could wait for now, after all, he only had limited time with Rose. Well it was a lifetime, but he knew time would fly if everyday was like this one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took a while cause i accidentally deleted a few hundred words, and i decided to rework the stuff in it a gazillion times. Anyway i managed to finally get it done


	4. UNIT

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Doctor and Rose visit his new job at UNIT

“Welcome to UNIT headquarters” Rose said, waving her hand in a grand gesture towards the hulking structure that is Big Ben. At first, the Doctor doesn’t know whether she’s joking or not, but when he realises, his mouth drops open.

“Rose Tyler, are you telling me that UNIT is in Big Ben?” the Doctor exclaims, grinning in delight. This UNIT already seemed ten times better than the other one, purely because of the novelty of being _inside_ a giant clock tower. Rose grinned, proud that she got to wow the Doctor for once.

“This is the one time I get to be the smart and knowledgeable one! This is possibly my greatest achievement!” Rose giggled excitedly. The Doctor smiled fondly, enjoying the experience of something so new.

“Well, lead the way. I can’t wait to meet this Brigadier of yours” He linked his arm with Rose, and to his surprise, she pulled him along impatiently. They ended up in a dark and dusty alleyway. The Doctor almost made an inappropriate comment about what kinds of activities one might engage in in such an alleyway. Before he got the chance, he found that he had suddenly changed positions. The contrast between the grime and graffiti of the alley and the clean white walls of the room around him was striking. He quickly tried to get a grip on his surroundings, but it was a bit difficult as he seemed to be experiencing the side effects of some kind of primitive teleport. He actually felt a bit nauseous.

“Blimey, what the hell was that?” he croaked, through his strangely dry mouth.

“We’ve rejigged a teleport from an alien spaceship, it’s much quicker than the long way in. Still, you should have a drink of water” Rose explained, before turning to a small table in the room. It had a water jug and some paper cups. Surprisingly shabby for what passed for a futuristic UNIT institute. The room was about the size of the kitchen in Rose’s old flat, most of it taken up by a large control panel, and the pad they had materialised on. It was very hodge podge. The Doctor thought of it as charming. Rose passed a paper cup over to the Doctor, who swallowed his drink in one swift gulp.

“Is the rest of UNIT like this?” he asked, curious to know if it all looked to muddled and quickly put together. Rose nodded

“We only just merged recently, and a lot of our really good tech is stuff from alien ships and stuff. It all looks a bit rough, but we aren’t too focused on that” The Doctor sighed in relief, he was dreading working in some Torchwood One lookalike. That place had no personality, and it also didn’t hold the greatest memories of his life. Once Rose had finished her drink, she held out her hand to grab his cup, instead he took hers and linked his hand in hers. She closed hers around his, and for a minute or so, they enjoyed the simple pleasure of being able to touch again. He drew her in, and used his other hand, still holding the paper cups, to wrap around her. He drew her towards him, and she rested there. They would have stayed enveloped in each other, but the door opened at that moment to reveal Brigadier Christa Latif. She coughed to announce her arrival, and Rose stepped away and stood to attention. It was alarming for the Doctor to see Rose this way, he was used to her being a lot less soldier-y. The Doctor didn’t make any effort to salute, or even stand up straight. He did not intend on becoming UNIT’s pet alien. The Brigadier grimaced, as if she could already guess what sort of man this ‘Doctor’ was. But she wasn’t too put off, as far as she had heard, this Doctor was perfectly reasonable.

“Welcome to UNIT, Doctor. I’ve heard lots about you” she smiled politely. The Doctor looked over at Rose and raised an eyebrow in an amused fashion. She smiled mysteriously. She was deeply enjoying the chance to be like the Doctor. The Brigadier gestured, and Rose almost immediately grabbed the doctor by the wrist and followed her from the room. Outside was a rather empty hallway, the same white as the room they had left, but the only decorations were some random pictures. They were headed to the end of the hallway, into what looked like a see-through lift. They stepped in, and the Doctor moved his hand so that he was holding Rose’s, rather than her clinging onto his wrist. Rose always loved this elevator ride, she rarely got to use it, but the view was unforgettable. They ascended, and the surroundings of the elevator went from the dark inside of a shaft, to a view of each floor of UNIT. Most were office style floors, or laboratories. But the floor that Rose liked the best was the botanical floor. It contained unusual or alien plants they had found and cultivated. They had even grown the first natural blue rose. The Doctor marvelled at the sight of the plants, growing freely and in large amounts. He instantly preferred parallel UNIT to the other one, this one seemed more intent on study and research. He knew that there were sections designed for combat, or else it wouldn’t be UNIT, but he appreciated the focus on the research. Rose grinned. The Brigadier’s office was on one of the highest floors, just before the large cafeteria and rest space. It was on a floor of slightly nicer offices. They were all larger too. They stepped out of the lift, the Brigadier marching off into her office. Rose pulled a slightly stunned Doctor along with her, they followed the Brigadier into a generic and minimalistic office. The only objects to suggest that someone worked in here were the five or so framed photos sitting around the place. They were all of a girl who looked like a younger version of the Brigadier. The Doctor guessed that it was her daughter, he almost asked about her, but realised that was a risk, given this was his potential boss.

“Sit down, please” she gestured to two leather chairs. The Doctor sat like an insolent child, slumped over, with his legs crossed, Rose sat straighter than usual, this was her boss. He Brigadier sighed.

“So, Doctor. Miss Tyler had brought you to my attention. I would like to offer you a job here.” She was straight to the point, not wasting time with false pleasantries. The Doctor looked mildly curious.

“What would this job entail exactly?” he asked, curious as to what they wanted him for.

“I’ve heard you are an expert in all things alien, and also a very well rounded scientist. I was hoping you could be a consultant or advisor for us. Miss Tyler had already gone to the trouble of emailing me about your… quirks” she said, indicating that she knew he was an alien, and that he was eccentric. He nodded and smiled curtly.

“Hmm” he responded, he didn’t like being particularly chatty with people like Christa. They tended to not appreciate his sense of humour, and random bits of information. Rose looked immensely uncomfortable.

“We’ll be offering you a relatively good salary, and also a private lab space. Miss Tyler insisted.” Christa smiled a bit. She was quite fond of Rose, she reminded her of her own daughter. She was also friends with Jackie, though it was an unusual friendship. The Doctor’s face lit up at the mention of his own lab. He felt a sort of childlike glee. His own lab in _Big Ben_. He felt like he could look forward to the mundanity of a human job.

“Well, beats working in a shop” he grinned, Rose smiled slightly. Christa nodded in approval.

“Good, you can start work on improving your space today if you’d like. Captain Tyler will come check in on you, and Miss Tyler has been assigned as your assistant. Unless you’d prefer someone else” Christa finished the brief. She had put this together rather quickly, and she figured assigning Rose as his assistant would be easiest as she actually knew this mysterious man. The Doctor’s face light up even more.

“Miss Tyler is certainly my prime choice for assistant” he looked over at her with eyes that matched the intensity of his grin. Rose grinned back at him.

“Good. Now you can both go set up, I have paperwork to do” Christa said, she wanted to be alone today, the look that Rose and the Doctor had shared made her feel the emptiness of loss again. She didn’t like to be reminded that she had smiled like that once. When the two exited, hand in hand, Christa laid her head in one of her hands, and took a picture of her daughter with the other. Her tough façade started to crumble, and for the next few minutes, she tried to hold back a sob. Her efforts were unsuccessful though, and tears began to stream down her face, a choked sound escaping from her. She was glad her office was soundproof.

Rose knew which lab she was taking him to. She was almost jealous, but she realised she would be working there too. It was located in the very top of Big Ben. It hadn’t been used in ages, but it still had good stuff in there. When she opened the reinforced doors, the Doctor almost gasped. It was around the size of the Powell estate flat. It was dusty and in disrepair, but there were tables full of old equipment and parts. Broken alien tech was also strewn across the tables, and there was a large empty tank. Bookshelves also lined one wall, and there was a medical area in one corner. It was everything you could need in one lab. Rose smiled, and The Doctor hugged her excitedly. She let out an _oof_ , he had hugged her harder than usual. He ran into the centre of the lab, and took in this new space.

“Should we start cleaning up all this stuff?” Rose asked, gesturing to the table covered in mostly junk. He slipped from childish excitement to concentrating man-at-work in a second. His eyes scanned the stuff and he looked up.

“I’d say put it in a box, and I’ll disassemble it later” he said, taking interest in the tank on the other side of the room. He murmured something, before reaching into a pocket and pulling out the piece of TARDIS coral. He held it up, and his face lit up with inspiration.

“I can put the TARDIS in here, of course I have to fiddle with it a bit, but this would be perfect!” He marvelled at the idea, the thought of having his own TARDIS grew more tangible by the second. He had no idea when it would be ready, he had no experience. He was glad anyway, glad that the other him had gifted him this. Thinking of the version of himself hurt a little. He couldn’t tell if he was angry at him, or felt bad for him. By now Donna must be gone, he had yet to tell Rose that. He knew how lonely the other version of himself must be, but there was nothing he could do to help. He knew that even after the way he was treated by that other version of himself, he couldn’t bring himself to hate him. Rose noticed the Doctor deep in thought, and decided that she should make herself useful and start tidying. She found a large crate in one corner of the room, it was rather run down, but it would fit all the miscellaneous crud. She was careful with each item, not wanting to damage anything. Each item had a new distinctive look, some were comprised of organic shapes, or geometric blocks. The one item that she took particular notice of was oddly familiar. She remembered it faintly, from Van Statten’s vault. She stroked her fingers over it gently, and it hummed. The hums from the instrument are relaxing, almost like a sedative. The Doctor comes over from the tank, and removes the instrument from her hands.

“Hey-“ she almost objects, but when he takes it, he plays it with such prescient and care, that the sound radiates a sort of melancholy feeling. He must have learned to play it at some point. She relaxes into the sound, and she closes her eyes. The melody creates such a vivid imagery in her mind, a calm ocean, the gentle lapping of the salty sea. The sound of soft voices against the wind. The Doctor stares at Rose while he plays the instrument, he can’t help thinking of Bad Wolf Bay and how beautiful she looked, with the sound of the sea, and the wind weaving through her hair. But the melody swells into something slightly lighter, when he thinks of years later, on that same beach, when he kissed her properly for the first time. The nature of his thoughts are expressed somewhat vaguely through the tune, the instrument was from a planet where they specialised in empathic technology. The last time he heard a melody from this instrument, it was rough and plagued with the greediness of Van Statten. And just before when Rose had briefly played it, the sound of simple joy and mild curiosity had permeated the notes. The Doctor gently stops playing the instrument, and Rose’s eyes flutter open.

“Have you ever considered a career in alien music, I think you could certainly carve out a niche” Rose grinned, her eyes still half closed.

“Perhaps, though I think I might be a bit much for the music world today, don’t you think?” he pulled a fake arrogant smirk. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and smiled up at him. His face softened, and reciprocated the hug. When they had travelled, each hug had been taken for granted, he certainly didn’t do that now. He enjoyed the feeling of warmth, and the smell of her hair, some kind of fruity shampoo. Unconsciously, he felt his arms tighten around her, as if he was afraid she dissolve beneath his grip, like the many nightmares he had in the years before. He could hear her sharp breath, and he realised that he had held her too hard. She stared up at him, an eyebrow furrowed in concern.

“Sorry about that, I’m not used to this” He sheepishly apologised. Her face was considerably less relaxed now.

“I forgot to ask, but shouldn’t I keep an eye on you? We don’t know what that metacrisis did to you” She asked him, and he sighed. He hadn’t thought about that, too much else going on.

“Once we tidy up, I’m sure I can put together some stuff for scans. There’s even a dinky little medbay over there” he grinned, not a truly genuine grin, but the thought of putting together machines with all this new and interesting technology would be fun. Rose’s lips turned up in a smile, and the Doctor softly planted a kiss on her forehead.

“Now, I’m off to get some lunch, I figured I’d get some stuff from the pizza shop down the road. It’s your first day after all!” Rose had figured that the Doctor might not want the food from the cafeteria, given her mum was in charge down there. She also wanted to get some pizza as it was one of her favourite things about this London. The Doctor nodded.

“When will you get back?” he asked curiously, wondering how long the normal way out of UNIT was.

“I’ll be back in about an hour, though I’m sure you can occupy yourself until then” she gestured at the piles of junk to be sorted. The Doctor raised an eyebrow.

“You’re a slave driver, Miss Tyler” Rose only smirked in reply, before walking from the room, and gently shutting the door behind her. The Doctor took a deep breath, and sat down on the floor, his back leaning against the table. He was content to just relax, and take in all the details of the day. He looked around his new lab, and made mental notes about what to change and add. He thought that having giant bookshelves would be nice. He needed to find test tubes and beakers and clamps too, now that the TARDIS couldn’t provide them. While he thought, he didn’t notice the door to the lab slide open. But he did hear the sound of footsteps.

“Who’s there?” he asked, pushing himself off the ground, and back onto his feet.

“It’s me, where’s Rose?” Jackie replied, she was dressed in a white uniform with an apron and a hair net.

“Rose went down the road, she said she’s getting pizza” he replied, really hoping that he didn’t have to spend an awkward hour in a room with Jackie Tyler. He liked her well enough, but he was always concerned she would slap him.

“Well, I suppose that’s a shame, but I was hoping to talk to you alone” Jackie said, with an unusually serious look on her face. The concern was really starting to build now. The Doctor nodded just a little, trying to keep a calm and indifferent face, all the while his mind raced, trying to figure out what the subject of this serious talk was about. Jackie was also quite uneasy. She wasn’t here for a fun chat, but the quicker she said it, the better.

“So, now that you’re stuck here, what are you planning?” She asked, not being fully direct.

“Well, for now it seems I’ll be working here” he replied, telling the truth, because he himself hadn’t planned out his entire human life. Jackie sighed

“That’s not what I- Oh never mind!” she huffed. The Doctor was incredibly confused. There were a few seconds of tense silence, before Jackie blurted

“So how long until you go swanning off?”

“I don’t understand what you mean” the Doctor replied, not meeting her eyes.

“You know what I mean! How long until you grow your new bloody TARDIS and leave her?” Jackie snapped at him, she was planning to be gentler about it. The Doctor just gave her a hurt stare.

“Don’t give me those puppy eyes! I know how you are, I’ve seen your other ‘companions’, you’re gonna leave my Rose!” she shouted accusingly. The Doctor grimaced.

“No, I’m not going anywhere.” He answered bluntly. He wasn’t looking at her, he didn’t want to.

“You’re telling yourself that now, but I’m sure you’d be happy to ditch Rose when you get bored of her, you’ll probably find some other pretty girl, and you’re gonna break her heart!” Jackie almost cried, knowing that if Rose’s heart broke again, she might not be able to bear it. A simmering anger built up within the Doctor, along with a sort of melancholy.

“Why do you think I would do that?” he almost growled. He thought Jackie would understand him.

“Cause that’s who you are!” she shouted at him.

“You have no idea how I feel! How can you stand there accusing me when you don’t know how much I-“ he choked on the last part of his sentence, tears welling up in his eyes, the stress of everything had built up into this. Jackie felt a stab of guilt towards him, but she hadn’t made her point. 

“I think you forget Doctor, but for almost 20 years, my husband was dead. He was gone forever, and Rose was the only thing left. Rose is one of the most important people in my life, and I won’t have you hurting her again!” Jackie finished. She didn’t mean any harm, but she just wanted to make sure Rose would be happy. The Doctor felt like the words were a slap in he face, but what was more shameful for him was knowing that Jackie had the right to be concerned. He doubted he could truly reassure Jackie with words, they were just words after all.

“Jackie, can I show you something?” he asked, he was treading carefully, he was mostly sure that his telepathic ability had remained intact.

“What the hell do you mean ‘show’ me something?” She questioned him. He sighed, not enjoying the idea of explaining telepathy to her.

“I want to show you proof I won’t leave, not ever.” He said, solemnly. Jackie looked confused still.

“Just… keep your mind blank” he suggested, before reaching out a hand, and closing his eyes. This would take some concentration. She felt a bit of doubt, questioning what he was going to show her by touching her, but she guessed that it might be to do with the whole blank mind thing. When she let him touch her temple, he winced. It was a strain trying to show her what he wanted, but he did it. He showed her his memories, full of intense emotion. It was all quick, but what he wanted to convey came through. Jackie almost tore away. The intensity of the feeling was so odd and alien. She could only see a blur of blonde hair and a wide smile, but she could instantly tell it was Rose. The image and the feeling. It felt like every good thing in the world, all at once. When he removed his hand and severed the contact, she looked him in the eye. She was almost speechless.

“Oi! You’d better explain before you go putting bloomin’ things in my head! Rose never told me you could do that!” she snapped at him, but her tone was slightly warmer. She felt that she could begin to believe he would stay for her. His face was still slightly blotchy, and perspiration had created a light sheen over his skin. Telepathy was a significant effort now. He needed to sit down, so he returned to his position on the floor.

“Only way I could make you understand, you humans are so stubborn” he muttered with a grimace. Jackie looked slightly affronted, but she did consider stubbornness to be one of her better traits.

“Well, my point still stands, hurt my daughter and I’ll do more than just slap you” she smiled this time though, her tone was stern but warm, the Doctor gave her a grateful look, but now wanted time alone with the sorting to rest. Organisation was one hobby that always relaxed his mind. Jackie realised she should leave, so she did, almost wordlessly

“Let Rose know I need to talk to her when I get back, yeah?” The Doctor didn’t turn, but just nodded. He heard the door shut, and he felt some tension release. The exchange with Jackie had been odd to say the least. He thought it was over awfully quickly, given how stubborn she was, and he reconsidered using telepathy. He groaned and hung his head.

“God I shouldn’t have done that before eating” he muttered to himself, he was very hungry. It was an unusual feeling too, he could regulate feelings like hunger, and most of the time he coukd control his emotional state too. He spent a few minutes on the floor, just resting his head. Then he decided that he wanted to actually gets something done, and pulled himself up, and began sorting through the various bits and bobs scattered on the table. Each was instantly identifiable, not much seemed to have changed across the universe. It made him smile fondly, looking at the small reminders of his travels. While sorting through them, he spaced out, and almost felt a sting in his head. Images flashed across his vision, and he saw the inside of the TARDIS briefly, and he felt a sudden sadness. _Must have been a weird flashback_ , he thought to himself. It unsettled him nonetheless.

Rose was pleasantly surprised by how peaceful Westminster was, usually it was packed with workers and tourists, but today there weren’t many people. The pizza shop was a hole in the wall, a place that usually only attracted people who knew about it. She knew exactly what pizza to order, the Doctor was a weirdo who liked pineapple on pizza, so she ordered him a large Hawaiian, and a medium margherita for herself. She hummed happily, before returning to a small plastic chair. She started to space out, knowing that it would take maybe ten minutes for the pizza to be ready. She hoped the Doctor hadn’t blown up his new lab, because she already knew that he quite liked the place. When she left the store after receiving her order, she quickened her pace along the footpath, and made a conscious effort to try and get back before the food went cold. The wind was bitingly cold, prickling on her cheeks. She hoped the blotchy redness on her face would go away once she got back. While she walked, she looked at the surroundings she had walked past a million times, and out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw something move. Nothing big, just a small flicker of motion. Her sense tried to tell her that it was nothing, but a voice in her head told her to investigate. The pizza could be reheated after all. She turned to the alleyway where she had seen it, and couldn’t help thinking about how this was all very cliché, like a bad horror movie. Each step almost echoed, the path she took was that empty. It gave her a thrill though, taking her back to her travels in the TARDIS. When she looked around the dark space in between large buildings, she could only see a slightly broken fence, and a few rubbish bins. _I must have just been paranoid, maybe I didn’t get enough sleep_ , she thought to herself, before swiftly turning away, and trailing back to the UNIT headquarters. The long way up involved inconspicuously walking into a normal seeming house nearby, and taking a variety of underground pathways and one elevator to get in. It was so unnecessarily convoluted, and she wished that the teleportation could get developed enough so that she could use it regularly. She felt a sigh of relief when she finally reached the top floor. There was one window, relatively small, and mainly positioned for letting natural light in, rather than for optimum viewing opportunities, but the view was magnificent anyway. She craned her neck in order to see better, admiring the now familiar skyline of London. The shard was an eyesore, like always. But she loved looking at the silhouette of St Paul’s Cathedral on the horizon, and she would have watched it for a lot longer before realising she was technically still at work. Each new footstep echoed on the cool marble floor, and the fluorescent lighting made every wall look paler. It was a stark contrast to the soft warm glow of the TARDIS. The door was open a crack, and looking through it, Rose saw the pile of stuff organised into the box, and the Doctor tinkering with a tank.

“You wouldn’t know how to work teleporters would you? It’s a nightmare getting here the normal way” she asked, the Doctor’s spanner clanked on the ground, he had jumped in surprise. He stood up and grinned

“Do you doubt my incredible skills and intellect? I thought you knew me better” he said it mildly sarcastically. Rose slid the pizza boxes out of her arms and onto the now clean bench.

“Your pizza sir, fresh from the streets of Westminster” she made an extravagant gesture. The Doctor opened up a box, and offered her a slice, equally extravagantly.

“The first slice shall be yours, milady” She giggled and took the slice. The Doctor opened the box with Hawaiian and grabbed a particularly pineappley piece. He grinned at the alliteration, he was always a fan of alliteration and believed that it should be utilised more than it usually was. When he took a bite into the dough, he was amazed by how good it was. Usually a lot of human food was nothing more than average, though he was human now, so it made sense. Rose saw the Doctor’s face lighten up. She took a small bite of hers and savoured it. By the time Rose had finished her first slice, the Doctor had shovelled half his pizza into his mouth already.

“Oh that’s wizard” he said, his smile was infectious. When the word came out of his mouth he was reminded of Donna, and felt his heart ache. He tried not to let it show on his face, but Rose knew him too well.

“Are you alright?” she asked softly, he knew that telling her Donna’s fate would only upset her too, so he tried to nod and smile, but she could see the fragility in his face.

“Tell me what’s wrong, we won’t get anywhere if you keep stuff to yourself” she looked him straight in the eye, leaning over the cool benchtop. He made an empty sort of choking noise.

“It’s Donna, I-“ he couldn’t bear to put it into words. He coughed and tried again.

“When she awakened the Time Lord part of her brain she- it was too much for her and she’ll die unless I- the other me wipes her memory of me” he managed to get it all out. Rose felt like it was a punch, she had only known Donna for a little bit, but knowing her fate made her eyes feel prickly. The Doctor had known her for longer than her, and was keeping it together better than her. She reached across the table and laid her hands on his temples.

“You don’t have to stay strong you know, even you get to feel weak” she said, with such conviction through her shaking voice. Her resolute stare was warm and comforting, even through the beginnings of tears. He rarely allowed himself to break in front of people, it showed the chinks in his façade. The warmth of her hands on his temples was a comfort too, he wasn’t alone. But it felt as if he was. For a moment he was alone in the TARDIS, swallowed by grief. The feeling might have swallowed him, but Rose was here, keeping him tethered to _now_. He didn’t have Donna, the TARDIS, or his own familiar body, but he had this girl, and the promise of a lifetime to spend with her. She had walked around the table, and her arms had wrapped around his torso to comfort him, he reached for her, and found some semblance of solace in the feeling of having someone to hold onto. Rose did not say anything more, only looking at him. The well of pain in his eyes was almost too much to bear, and it hurt knowing all she could do was this. There were no tears, no sobs, just a quiet sort of gloom, like a heavy grey raincloud. Rose couldn’t help thinking of the other Doctor too, who was alone in that other universe. She ached for him, but knew that there was nothing she could do in that case either. The Doctor decided that while the comfort of having Rose was something he could enjoy, he couldn’t waste time like this, he didn’t have much time anymore.

“Right, I’m no use to anybody moping around like this. Back to work” Rose’s response to this was a harsh stare. He really didn’t seem to understand that he was allowed to grieve. He always seemed to need something to do.

“You sure?” she asked, her tone was a tad condescending, but only because of her concern for him, she certainly knew what bottling up your feelings can do to you. He only smiled wanly and returned to the tank.

“I’ve gotta start growing the TARDIS so we can travel” he said. She only sighed and ate another slice of pizza.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man, this took ages but it's so fun for some weird reason, I think writing this fic is my secret guilty pleasure lol.


	5. Captain Jack Harkness

Captain Jack Harkness was a time agent. Key word, _was_. They had kicked him out of the agency and left randomly transported him to what looked like 21st century Earth. Not exactly a great send-off, but then again when is getting fired ever great? Currently Captain Jack Harkness was a homeless vagabond on the streets of London. He would have gotten a job, but he didn’t know how things worked around here, it was all so old-fashioned. Currently he spent his time trying to figure out how to get his vortex manipulator working again, but no luck. The time agency had _really_ been serious about making sure he was stuck here. Nobody living here could even begin to understand the complex technology of a vortex manipulator, so here he remained. Mostly, he lived in a relatively empty alleyway in Westminster, but he was starting to get bored of the place. The good thing was, he still had his perception filter, which meant he could still eat. He simply took leftovers from restaurants and cafés, the owners never noticing what went missing. The other day though, a girl had almost seen him. She had seen through his perception filter, just for a moment. This struck him as unusual, and he was tempted to ask her why she could see him, but that would have sounded weird. So he moved on, thinking that was just a blip in his filter.

The next day at UNIT, while the Doctor was making adjustments to the tank which was soon to house the TARDIS coral, Rose was unpacking new equipment and materials into a cabinet. She had spent all night awake, thinking of many different things, often all at once, this meant she was too exhausted to trust herself doing anything fiddly. She also knew that her skills were not applicable to the task at hand, so she kept out of it. Neither of them particularly wanted to break the new TARDIS. The Doctor was also tired, he had also been wide awake in the room next to Rose’s, also preoccupied with thoughts of the future and of the fate of Donna. He clambered out of bed having had nearly no sleep. He was sluggish today, a calculation that should have taken seconds took a minute, it was putting him on edge. He couldn’t afford to make even the slightest error, or the new TARDIS could die.

“Rose, could you pass me that light?” he called, his face almost inside a mechanism on the side of the tank. Rose grabbed a small torch, grabbed from the house’s laundry room. She almost considered throwing it, but didn’t feel like replacing a torch today. So she brought it over, the situation was a parallel to so many idle nights in the TARDIS. On her way back to the table, she decided to put on a CD, she had also taken some from her room, mostly stuff she listened to while studying, she knew exactly which song. When she took the disc out of the sleeve, she handled it with a delicacy that was impressive. When she slotted it into the portable CD player, the sound of a crackling saxophone streamed out from the speakers. It was a familiar song, the Doctor knew it instantly.

“In the Mood, you have good taste” he said, turning his head to face her, she held out a hand, and he hauled himself up and across the room. He took her hand.

“I remember you dancing to this song, I was starting to think you were jealous of Jack” her smile had a similar quality to caramel, he didn’t quite know why though.

“Me? Jealous? Never in a million years” he said, fully sarcastically, remembering that he was in fact burning with the feeling at the time. He led her in a slow dance, not moving around much at first. Her smile widened into a grin, in an almost inexplicably attractive way. He found the oddest things about her tended to be the things he paid attention to the most. Like the way her makeup wasn’t perfect, and her hair was always just a little messy. She often thought a similar way about him. The song floated in the background, and thye drifted back and forth across the clear space in the room. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she rested her head on his shoulder. When the song came to a close, another one flicked over, also familiar. Moonlight serenade, the song she had danced with Jack. 

“D’you ever wonder what happened to Jack in this universe?” she asked, the thought just popping into her head. She had wondered about most of her friends at some point, but strangely not about him. She had assumed he had died on the game station for a while.

“Probably still in the 51st century, making trouble as always” The Doctor replied, his breath tickled her ear. He let out a half laugh, despite all the things that annoyed him about Jack, he did quite miss the man.

“Yeah, that’s true” she laughed too, and they were both silent for the rest of the song, the memories of friends gone forever still fresh in their minds. After a while, The Doctor coughed and gently pulled away

“TARDIS” he muttered to himself, quickly turning his face. He really didn’t want to spoil the mood, he just needed some time with machines. Uncomplicated machines, he didn’t want to think of all the people he’d let down right now. When he flopped back in front of the wires and pieces of metal, his brain immediately switched into pure science mode. He didn’t have time to keep moping, he had to finish this, and he had to save money to move out of the Tyler’s house. He did like them well enough, but waking up in the same house as Jacqui Tyler was exhausting. He glanced at Rose, who had started aimlessly fiddling with assorted bits of crap strewn around the desks. He hoped that perhaps she would come with him if he ever moved anywhere. He spaced out, before having this thoughts interrupted by a burning strain in his head, and his eyes weren’t seeing the machinery in front of him anymore, he saw the control panel of his TARDIS, so tangible and real. He reached forward, but found he only grabbed a loose wire. Maybe some kind of residue, leftover thoughts and memories flickering in his head like a broken lightbulb.

Jack had decided that today was a bad day. He was currently within minutes of death, being face to face with some kind of extra-terrestrial monstrosity. He would have preferred to die staring at the face of a handsome kind of alien, but alas, life was cruel. This monster was all teeth and wet pink flesh. It was also embedding it’s teeth into his arm. He could hear himself groaning in agony, but somehow felt disconnected, like he wasn’t really there. He was grateful for that, it hurt less. He closed his eyes, accepting his fate, and fantasising that he really was dying at the hands of something handsome.

“Sir, Look” a smartly dressed man sitting in front of a panel of screens pointed at the iamge of the alien currently biting a homeless man. The man standing above him let out a hmm and gestured.

“Get people down there now, save the civilian, but retcon him” he shouted with an urgency that did not match his previously calm demeanour. At the firm tone of the uniformed officer, the group of armed men straightened and marched from the room. It was happening nearby, and the teleporter was only a few doors away. When they filed in, and all left, the uniformed officer and suited man watched the video feed intensely.

Jack was numb when he saw the men. They had guns, all vintage and impractical. The Alien didn’t hesitate, half his arm had been butchered, gashes in his flesh were open, and the air smelled like blood. The men didn’t hesitate either, they shot at the creature with their guns. It fell in a heap on the ground. Blood spilled from underneath it. Jack’s mouth opened and closed with shock.

“Excuse me sir, we need you to come with us” The oldest of them looked at him, right in the eyes. Jack nodded, wincing at the pain in his arm. They all turned with such military precision, that it was almost robotic. They lead him down the alleyway, and into another one. When they stopped, he looked confused. They were just standing there. One was muttering into some kind of old radio device. He was dumbfounded. Then, the next thing he knew, he had been teleported. Not even a good teleport either, he felt nauseous and his mouth was dry.

“What the hell are you doing?” he half growled at the nearest officer

“Sir-“

“You shouldn’t have this technology, this doesn’t get invented on Earth for years!” he thought it was worrying, given that every time agent knew that the early 21st century was primitive. The officer’s eyes widened a little. When the others teleported in, the officer whispered something into another one’s ear, and instantly, Jack was in handcuffs.

“Doctor, are you there?” a crackly voice comes through the intercom. The Doctor curses after banging his head on a piece of tank. He slides out from underneath the tank, and hops over to the intercom, Rose right beside him. The door slid open after the Doctor slapped the button, he found that button immensely satisfying. The Brigadier was standing on the other side, her face stonier than usual. Her uniform was almost unsettlingly neat.

“Reporting for duty, _boss_ ” he grinned, saying it with that edge of cheeky defiance, Rose resisted the urge to giggle like when she was 19. The Brigadier raised an unimpressed eyebrow.

“We have an unusual guest, and since you seem to have a knowledge of the unusual, we thought you might be able to help accommodate him” her smile was false, almost condescending. Rose blinked in confusion, but the Doctor was already halfway down the hallway. She sighed and gave the brigadier a small smile.

“He’s always like this, mention anything unusual or strange and he’s off” she laughed. The Brigadier raised her eyebrow again this time, her smile turning slightly amused. They continued down the hallway, trailing after the Doctor, who seemed to know where to go. He had already gained an intimate knowledge of the tower, having studied the floorplan the night before. It was good to see his brain had remained almost the same. He even retained his photographic memory. When he burst into the elevator, he almost forgot to wait for Rose and the Brigadier, almost giddy with excitement. He processed in his head all the possibilities but there was simply too many. That fact thrilled him even more. When Rose and the Brigadier entered, he slapped the button with an enthusiasm that would surprise anyone who hadn’t met him. Rose smiled, and leaned into his arm, he slid it around her shoulder, it was surprisingly normal feeling, even after years. He grinned down at her, and she saw that familiar sparkle of mirth in his eyes. They descended, past the beautiful botanical level, and the functional offices. They descended past the point of where the first arrived, and into a dark hallway, lit with fluorescent tubes. The walls were clean, but made out of a metal that was very old, looked almost as old as the clock tower itself.

“Here we are, detention levels.” The Brigadier gestured, Rose left the elevator first, the Doctor quickly catching up with her, the Brigadier didn’t bother keeping pace. Even trailing behind, she had the authority in her stance. The guard standing in front of a door near the end nodded to her, not even acknowledging Rose and the Doctor. He didn’t recognise them, but he did think that man was awfully eccentric looking. When the Brigadier arrived, she scanned a card that was hidden within her breast pocket and the door beeped quietly. When it opend, surprisingly silently, they saw a man. He was covered in ragged clothing and a large fleecy blanket, and Rose almost thought she was hallucinating

“Jack” she breathed. It was just loud enough for the man’s head to turn around.

“Well _hello_ there” his signature smirk. He looked the same as he did the first time they met him, so many years ago. Rose could feel her jaw hanging open. The Doctor almost reacted the same, but instead rolled his eyes. Even in a parallel universe, Captain Jack Harkness was exactly the same.

“Stopped being so hostile?” the Brigadier said, with a cool indifference in her voice. She had grown to somewhat dislike this man.

“Well, let’s just say I’m a little more cooperative when presented with a friendlier face” he said, giving Rose the ‘look’. Rose and the Doctor had deliberated about that look, the Doctor seemed to think it was some kind of 51st century technology that made it so effective. Rose gave the Doctor a knowing glance, as if laughing about an inside joke. The Brigadier sighed, gesturing for the Doctor to move forward, not picking up on his surprise at seeing the parallel version of his old friend.

“Ah, yes” he stepped forward, and Jack raised an eyebrow, feeling that this man was familiar.

“I’m getting Déjà vu, do I know you?” he asked, that same smirk still plastered on his face. It was always so hard to tell if it was fake. The Doctor considered that one of the greatest mysteries of the universe.

“No, well, maybe” he replied, pulling his thinking face, he reached for his glasses, but he didn’t have them. _Mental Note, get glasses_ , he thought to himself.

“You’re not from around here, so what are you doing here?” the Doctor asked, crouched in front of Jack.

“Well that’s a long story, but the shortened version involves some maple syrup and the time agency” Jack said with his trademark smooth confidence. Rose tried not to laugh, instead she sort of spluttered.

“Time Agency?” the Brigadier asked with a bewildered expression, she had seen aliens from the far reaches of the universe, but had never heard of a time agency. It irritated her, not knowing about what seemed to be a large organisation.

“I shouldn’t really tell you, but I could be persuaded” he said, putting a little extra emphasis on the last part of his sentence. He could see an opportunity for some extra cash.

“Don’t bother, I already know about your agency, and about you actually” The Doctor said, with a small smirk. The Brigadier was doubly bewildered. Rose just looked on in a slightly amused fashion.

“The Time Agency is an intergalactic organisation that runs from around the 50th century. Bit hard to tell sometimes when they can time travel. They employ human agents, and most agents often have- aha! Vortex Manipulator!” the Doctor said, holding up a battered leather strap, taken from Jack’s arm while he wasn’t looking. The Doctor could tell it was broken.

“What is that?” the Brigadier asked, she had given up on her authoritative façade, the curiosity was too much.

“Cheap and unpleasant time travel, broken as of currently” he said, studying it intently. It looked the exact same as its parallel. Jack was flabbergasted, how could anyone from the 21st century know about the time agency. Unless he was also a time agent, or from the future.

“Who are you?” Jack asked. The Doctor gave him a charismatic grin.

“I’m the Doctor, now you’re gonna tell me what you’re doing in the 21st century, Captain Jack Harkness” he was meeting his eyes, they were old eyes, older than his own grandparents. He almost forgot to question how he knew his name. Well, his fake name. Jack sighed and ran a hand through his hair, flashing another confident grin at the Doctor. Then he talked, telling the story of how he got fired from the Time Agency. It involved a particularly messy relationship breakdown with the director of the agency. He hadn’t wanted it to get out, so he got rid of Jack. The Doctor raised an eyebrow, not entirely sure how to react, the seriousness of the story itself struck him, but the blasé tone of Jack’s recount was almost off-putting.

“Wow” Rose looked almost impressed. Jack huffed, leaning back against the wall. He was tired.

“I want to know if he’s a threat. What if these time agents sent him to sabotage us?” the Brigadier asked, the Doctor rolled his eyes while his back was turned. _Humans and their excess suspicion_. He almost forgot he was technically one of them.

“What the hell can I do? If I was a threat I wouldn’t have been living on the streets of London for the last two months” Jack looked slightly annoyed. His confident façade was wearing down over time. The Brigadier had one of her better ideas in that moment.

“Well, I can’t fully trust that you’re telling the truth, but what if you stay here for a while. The Doctor and Rose will watch you” she needed to give those two an actual job, so why not in their area of expertise. The Doctor looked affronted. He looked over at Rose, and there was a silent plea in his eyes. Rose just shrugged, she didn’t see the problem.

“You’re going to babysit me?” Jack raised an eyebrow at that. He didn’t mind the choice of people, both felt strangely familiar, and they were certainly easy on the eyes. He could only hope they were good company. Rose looked even more amused, the Doctor slightly exasperated.

“Great, I need help cleaning up” Rose said, giving the Doctor a very pointed look. The Doctor considered it odd how strangely the Brigadier had chosen to handle Jack. Usually he would have been detained or killed. But he remembered what this parallel UNIT was like. They were like scavengers, and it seemed the Brigadier saw Jack as another unusual asset to be collected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really wanted to bring Jack into the story, cause he's one of my favs. I might bring other Torchwood characters in too, I don't know yet. Anyway, I hope anyone reading this enjoys my wish fulfillment and thanks to the poepl who being patient with the sporadic updates lol


	6. The TARDIS is Born

“Welcome to your new prison cell” Rose joked, sweeping her arm in a grand gesture. The lab was cleaner now, but still a bit of a pigsty. Boxes lay over the benches, filled with new and old stuff. The tank was still half disassembled.

“Mind you, we did only get in a couple days ago” The Doctor’s eyes drifted over at Rose affectionately. This lab was they closest thing they had to a TARDIS, a shared space. It wasn’t telepathic, or customised based on his every whim and passing fancy, but he could add whatever he wanted. He thought that a bookshelf might be appealing.

“You can help me clear stuff up, if you want. I mean you could also sit down and wait. I don’t know why the Brigadier sent you here, usually she would retcon you and send you away.” Rose sighed, it was awfully quick for them to be suddenly working with this parallel Jack.

“Tell me about it, I don’t even know you two. Though I certainly wouldn’t mind getting acquainted” He smirked at them both. Neither responded in the way he wanted. Once upon a time Rose might have felt a bit weak at the knees, but she wasn’t like that anymore, Jack was her friend. Well her Jack was, this one could be anyone really. The Doctor coughed, and Jack almost sighed in disappointment.

“Since you’re stuck here with us now, we should set you up in the med-bay, not super comfy but it’s all we’ve got. I’ll be studying your manipulator and any technology you had on you.” The Doctor was in business mode, he seemed to have adjusted to working rather quickly.

“None of my tech benefits you, half doesn’t even work. I only really have the perception filter” The words reminded him of something.

“Blondie over there saw my perception filter slip the other day. I only just remembered.” He said, pulling it out of his pockets. It looked surprisingly ordinary. The Doctor swiped it, strolling off to the table nearest to his tank. He dropped the pieces of tech on the table and reached for his sonic screwdriver. It wasn’t there. He almost swore, he had to build a new one now. Thankfully they had all the alien tech that he could take parts from. He had to check them manually now, taking them apart. Jack opened his mouth to protest, but Rose just guided him into a corner of the lab.

“So if you get that manipulator working again, can I go back to the 51st century?’ Jack asked. He didn’t have a place he could exactly call home, but the difference of 300 years was almost becoming too much, he wanted to lie down and sleep for a bit. Rose saw him slump over, and held out an arm. He let her put her arm under his shoulders, and she lay him down in the med-bay.

“Who are you people?” he asked because he was most likely to be stuck with them for a while yet, getting to know his sort-of prison guards would be a good choice. It wasn’t like he could do what he did with the executioners though. For one he could tell they were a couple, and two, they were so wrapped up in each other it was nauseating.

“My name’s Rose, and this is the Doctor” she said.

“And before you ask that is _just_ the Doctor” The Doctor added.

“I’ve met odder people” Jack replied, most of the odder people were easy to remember for many different reasons.

“Try me” the Doctor scoffed. Rose almost rolled her eyes. He had woken up tired and grumpy. It reminded her of his previous self.

“You’ll never believe me, after all you haven’t discovered space travel yet” he smirked. The Doctor muttered something about _parallel universes_ and _insufferable._ Rose coughed, and turned to Jack.

“You should probably rest, nasty bit of work that alien was” She patted him on the shoulder, just above his mangled arm. Rose stood up to grab some kind of odd device with a liquid. It wasn’t quite right for 21st century earth technology.

“Isn’t that too advanced for you-“ he groaned as the cold metal made contact with his warm flesh. It seemed to be cooling his arm down or something.

“This might hurt but you’ll feel better for it afterwards” she murmured, concentrating on hitting the right spots. This was tech that UNIT had managed to reverse engineer. It could use temperature and chemicals to aid in the natural healing process. It just took a lot of practice.

“There we go, that should help it heal a bit better. You’ll probably need bandages though, so just gotta apply them.” The bandages UNIT used were also infused with some chemical cocktail. Nothing she really understood. She had a roll of them sitting on the desk against the wall. They were slightly blue tinted and smelled a bit like a cheap deodorant. When applying the bandages, she tried to be as gentle as possible, but this wasn’t her strong suit. She would have killed to have medical knowledge.

“This is why I shoulda got my A levels” she muttered through her teeth. She could hear a sharp intake of breath. Once she finished with the bandage she smiled.

“I take it you’re not a Doctor by trade” Jack said through half gritted teeth. Rose laughed and shook her head.

“Technically I’m a physicist. Not that I’ve done a lot of physics lately, taking care of this one is a science in itself.” She pointed at the Doctor.

“I can hear you” he responded, but with an affectionate smile on his face. He finished wiring his current circuit, the tank was done. All he had to do was adjust the variables and work on the coral. He quickly jumped up, and found the panel he had built for adjusting the settings. When he managed to change it to just the right atmosphere inside the tank, he let out a whoop and grinned.

“One step closer?” Rose asked from across the room, her focus shifting over to the Doctor. The tank didn’t look much different, just some machinery attached. The hope it ignited was fiery.

“You know, when the TARDIS is done I’m going to take you to the Andromede Nebula! The stars are all colours you’ve never even seen before!” he started to ramble excitedly. Rose grinned and ran over to give him a hug. He hugged her back twice as enthusiastically. She squealed like an ecited teenager.

“You don’t actually know that exists in this universe, maybe we’ll find something new” Rose grinned. The Doctor’s eyes lit up, it was like he was young again. So many new things he could explore, and all in a few years, if things went to plan. He pulled away from Rose, and found another machine he had swiped from the alien junk. It was pure luck that he had found it in working order, or maybe it was like destiny, though he didn’t fully believe in that. Rose was beside him instantly, tucking her hair behind an ear.

“This, Rose Tyler, is a very handy piece of technology that should allow me to shatterfry the plasmic shell, just like what Donna said! Then of course I have to modify the dimensional stabiliser but that should be easy given all the tech in here. Oh! And I need to make my sonic, I’m not me without it” he rambled. Rose was almost glowing. He was back to his old self. He wasn’t even like this when he was- She put the thought out of her head.

“Excuse me, did you say ‘this universe’?” Jack managed to finally ask. The Doctor’s head turned and he paled slightly.

“Oh, just a passing remark, that’s all” Rose cut in. Her focus was still on the piece of coral. Though not quite in the present. The material it was made out was the same as the struts, and similar to the walls and console. She reminisced about that control room, it was one of the only places that felt like home. The old metal smell and dim lighting was so comforting to her, and not having it in this universe felt like a hole in her heart. She loved the TARDIS almost as much as she loved the Doctor himself. It had never spoken to her the way it did with him, but sometimes she could feel it. After the Madame de Pompadour incident, it had entered her mind and almost comforted her like a friend.

“So is this like the TARDIS’s daughter?” she asked.

“Well, sort of. If you could call it that. But I’d say it’s a bit more like me. A sort of clone.” Rose winced at the word _clone_. But it was technically true. The Doctor coughed uncomfortably, he didn’t like to think of himself as a clone either. Jack felt somewhat ignored in the corner, and made an attempt to push himself up and come over. Unfortunately he tried using his injured arm, and he spouted a torrent of curses, mostly in a different language. Rose furrowed a brow and once again walked across the room. She lay Jack back down again and gave him a look that he thought was oddly familiar. He was starting to feel the strain of the last day, and soon enough he had fallen asleep.

“It’s so strange, even though I am sorta used to seeing parallel versions of people” Rose said, looking over her shoulder at Jack. The Doctor said nothing in response, but Rose just assumed he was concentrating.

“Should we tell him?” he asked in a comparatively serious tone. Still concentrating on the TARDIS coral. Rose sighed.  
  


“Dunno really, it’s not like we really know each other, and I wouldn’t wanna scare him. Plus it’s a bit spooky, seeing someone with the same face but them not being fully identical” His face was eerily familiar, but not the man she had come to love as a friend. The Doctor grimaced. Rose realised what she had implied.

“I didn’t mean-“ but she stopped. Did she mean it? It had been less than a week since she had bid farewell to the original Doctor. Was it wrong for her to be so blissfully content with this new Doctor. Was she only happy because he was a compromise, a man guaranteed to live a life with her for the next half a century. No, she tried not to think like that. She had made her choice. After all, she knew the Doctor would have let her back into the TARDIS in a heartbeat, and that he would have been happier for it. But she had chosen this, to have it all, her family, a proper life, The Doctor and soon a new TARDIS. Did that make her selfish? There was no going back, besides, his man was still the Doctor, the only differences were minor, and most were actually positive. Her face still flushed a little at the memory of the whispered words against her cold ear. She couldn’t help smiling a little wistfully.

“Rose? Can you open the tank? I really don’t want to drop or break the coral” he asked her, stopping her rogue thought tangent. She sighed, she had been partially enjoying recalling probably the most romantic and tragic moment of her life.

“On it, _boss_ ” she smiled cheekily. He groaned.  
  


“Oh god, that’s _weird_. Please never call me that again” he looked over at her pleadingly. She burst out into laughter. She strolled over to the tank and carefully lifted the metal lid. It was almost delicate. The Doctor reached an arm in and let the coral go. She almost reached for it, but it started to float.

“There we go, it’s a special kind of vacuum. Static objects stay completely still, projected in the air. This is massively convenient for museums actually. Saves you the trouble of having to rig things up” he removed his arm quite easily from the tank, and gently shut the lid.

“That was surprisingly easy for growing a new dimension” Rose remarked, sitting down on the floor to look at the suspended piece of TARDIS.

“According to my calculations, it’ll be ready in a few years” he murmured, crouching down next to her, they both stared at what was to be their new ship. The Doctor focused so intently on it, he didn’t notice the unearthly golden sparkle shining in Rose’s iris. His focus did shift over to her, but the sparkle disappeared as quick as it appeared.

“Barcelona might happen after all eh?” she nudged him, not realising that would put off her balance. Soon afterwards she toppled over and crashed into his shoulder. He almost toppled too, and managed to resist it, before flopping down rather ungracefully. Rose burst out in hoots of laughter, wrapping an arm around the Doctor, and leaning up to press an affectionate kiss to his lips.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am on a roll, though that could be a bad sign. This is literally the most I've ever written before in my life! It kinda lowkey reminds me of the kinds of stuff i wanted to write when i was like 14 and still used wattpad. Anyway, enjoy the chpater


	7. Attack

The creature stalked down an empty road, each step a careful effort not to draw attention to itself. It was humanoid, but still highly unusual. The time agents could find him if he even made the slightest mistake. He could still taste blood on his tongue. He had gorged himself tonight, a luxury he had not had for a very long while. It was the fresh blood of some young thing. An awful lot of hair and clothing that got in the way, but the muscle and flesh was taut. In it’s prime. He distinctly remembered the retching and screaming noises, which gave him a small thrill. Just thinking about it gave him the shivers. He had scarcely allowed himself to be tempted by the meat, but the young thing was so helpless. If he hadn’t killed her, something else would have, why waste time? He slunk into the pale light of a streetlamp, and stopped, thinking of his new home, this place would do nicely.

“Sir, we have another attack. Just last night down in East London. Hardly anything left but the bones, possible extraterrestrial life form” A young uniformed officer reported to his superior. It had been kept out of the news, the body had been unidentifiable, so it was being tested using dental records.

“Not again, the paperwork is going to keep me here all weekend” the superior officer groaned, so desensitised to the deaths going on recently that each new victim just a new page on the pile of paperwork. He also had to go report it to the Brigadier, who had asked to be alerted for all new cases. He didn’t see the necessity, but the Brigadier was overly emotional, he thought he could easily do a better job. He grumbled for a bit more, and went up the tower to meet the Brigadier. The elevator seemed to go extra slow today, and he didn’t bother looking at anything on the way up, just at his mobile phone. He would have noticed the stunning pink blossom in bloom in the botanical level, but was too busy texting various buddies of his. When the elevator tone sounded, he jumped a little. His steps were quite loud for the silent office floor. He walked past the office of various higher ups and thought about how much better he would be at their jobs. When he reached the Brigadier’s office, he didn’t bother knocking. The Brigadier would have groaned if she was unprofessional. It was Colonel Jones, she knew that he had a very low opinion of her and her ideas. When he sat down in front of her, crossing his arms and leaning back, she raised an eyebrow in a silent question. He coughed.

“There’s been another attack _ma’am_ ” there was a slight hint of venom. She nodded and furrowed her brow.

“Tell your men to send all the records to the office in the top. We have experts who can help in the investigation. I will warn you though, one is a little eccentric” She was glad to finally assign a job to her newest worker. The Colonel gritted his teeth and nodded. He waited expectantly on the chair, but the Brigadier returned to her work, not even going to the effort of dismissing him. He almost growled, his hatred for the woman grew each day. He stormed from the room and decided he needed a walk down the stairs today.

“Morning Captain, how’s the five star accommodation?” Rose was bright and smiley that morning, it had been a good day yesterday, and she felt like sharing her joy. Jack just groaned and rolled over. Rose did feel bad, the Brigadier hadn’t considered how they were supposed to accommodate Jack, apart from the uncomfy medbay. She had felt guilty crawling into her own soft bed last night, knowing that Jack was stuck in the cold office. Even though they were strangers in this universe, her concern was still that of a friend

The Doctor had his excitable air about him today, it was something Rose hadn’t seen in years, and it inspired a similar buzzing happiness for her too. The Doctor immediately began gathering parts, and dumping them on the desk closest to his TARDIS, the tank was done, but he still needed to make small adjustments, and he wanted to construct a sonic screwdriver. Rose had found some books at her house and was planning on shelving them on a large bookshelf. It had a few books about chemistry and biology, but there was a lack of anything interesting, like classic literature or experimental science, she didn’t have much on the latter category that wasn’t utter nonsense, but she and her dad found those kinds of books amusing. She had also found a crappy ladder amongst the junk in the room, and had set it up near the bookshelf. But she needed to attend to Jack first. The books weren’t suffering from a serious injury.

“How’s your arm?” She asked him, dumping the books on another desk.

“I’m not dead, but it damn well hurts” he cursed, groaning again. He had managed to slide up the wall to sit awkwardly. He was also incredibly bored. He attempted to push himself off the bed smoothly, but only managed a sort of half stumble. Rose, noticing his struggle almost sped across the room and offered her arm as a support. Jack declined, it was only an arm injury after all.

“Anything I can help with? I’m getting pretty bored in this pseudo prison” He laughed, but it was a bitter laugh, he was very annoyed that he couldn’t have proper accommodation. Rose winced at the bitterness.

“You could dust or something, there’s not really a whole lot you can do… I can ask the Brigadier about living arrangements though, she didn’t really explain anything to use when she left you with us.” She replied, pointing an arm at a dust and cloth dumped on a table yesterday. Jack almost made a snide remark, but was interrupted by yet another entrance. This time it was an unfamiliar suited man, holding a USB as if his life depended on it. He was stony faced.

“Excuse me, is the Doctor here?” he asked, while his eyes took in the unorganised chaos of the room, and the strange people inside it. Rose looked up and smiled at the newcomer, recognising a new employee when she saw one.

“Yeah, he’s busy though, what’s up?” her voice was almost gentle. The man held out the USB

“The Brigadier wants you to have this information, she’s assigning this case to you” he said, Rose was a bit stunned, this was quick, she hadn’t even set up her new office/lab area yet. She nodded and took it, her expression turning grave. She had managed to infer that this must be serious, if it had to be for them. The man skittered out of the room almost as quickly as he entered it. Rose let out an enormous sigh.

“What was _that_ all about, I didn’t think you were that intimidating” Jack joked.

“New employees, they get really nervous, one screw up and they could get fired and retconned” She said.

“That’s a little harsh, right?” he replied, though it was much the same at many other agencies of this type.

“I don’t like it, but I get it, comes with the territory. Don’t want a past employee telling people about us or else it sort of defeats the purpose” her happy demeanour had drained away like water down a sink. Jack smiled and laughed.

“That’s true, I’m lucky to still have my memories now” the time agency must have forgotten in their haste. Rose had a funny look on her face when he said that, but he ignored it.

“So, what was other me like?” he asked her, an impulsive question. Rose smiled wistfully.

“He was just like you, when I first got here I really missed him. He was a great friend” Rose felt a melancholy pit in her stomach. Jack felt uneasy in a way.

“Is it difficult?” he asked.

“What?” Rose didn’t get what he meant

“Just being here, seeing familiar people”

“It is, I suppose. I’ve tried to stay away from anything familiar, I haven’t gone to my old house. I don’t even know if it’s there. But most of the time I was too focused on trying to get back” she didn’t really know this version of Jack, but he still felt and acted like her friend. That was why she was being so vulnerable. Jack could see a lonely and melancholy air about her. He hestitantly put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He had only known her for a day, but he felt that he might be able to call her a friend.

“Everything alright over there?” The Doctor called.

“A guy came up and dropped off some information. Come have a look” She called back. The Doctor came over to her, his face resembled what Jack considered to be an especially enthusiastic puppy. Rose had seemingly magicked a laptop out from underneath the desk, and was opening it up. She plugged in the USB and clicked to open the files.

“This is odd, they didn’t explain any of this to me…” she muttered. There were folders, all labelled with what kind of files they contained.

“You know for a secret government organisation, you don’t seem to have a lot of security, shouldn’t this at least be encrypted?” Jack remarked, leaning over to look at the screen. The Doctor had leaned over too, and was staring intensely over her shoulder.

“Why don’t we try that one” he said, pointing at the file named ‘report’. Rose clicked on it, and opened the first document. The giant police logo popped up on the screen. When she scrolled down, there was a picture of a middle aged man.

“Jacob Pillsbury, found dead in the street a month ago. The killer was never caught, but it seemed to be some kind of animal…” Jack had skimmed through the article.

“Oh my god” Rose whispered, she had scrolled down the to the image of his corpse. It was unrecognisable, hardly anything other than bones and torn flesh. She felt a wave of nausea just looking at it. The Doctor put a hand on her shoulder, squeezing softly. Jack gulped.

“That’s awful” Rose could feel tears welling up, and a lump in her throat. She would have thought she was used to this by now, but she never was.

“It says he had _kids_ ” The Doctor’s face darkened. Once the first report was done, they opened another one. This time it was a young girl, found in the street yesterday.

“Is there any video footage?” Jack asked, clicking through the folders until he eventually found CCTV footage, without really thinking he immediately started to play the first available file. It was a massive mistake. The first thing they heard was frantic pleading, and a wet growling noise.

 _p-please! I’ll do anything just sto-_ and from then it was just a guttural screech, and they watched as the pink fleshy thing consumed her, bit by bit. Rose put a hand over her mouth, and turned away from the screen. The Doctor held her, feeling quite sickened himself

“That’s either a _really_ good costume, or it’s not local” Jack was making an effort to lighten the mood, but his attempt didn’t do much to help, it only earned him a glare. The Doctor let go of Rose once she had calmed down, and he leaned over to look at the still frame of the alien.

“It looks familiar, must’ve seen it somewhere before… Dunno where though.” He muttered to himself.

“Looks a bit generic, like what you’d imagine a predatory alien to look like” Rose noted, after taking a proper look. It was similar to Weevils and the Hoix. The Doctor snorted. They had encounter a similar type of almost too generic alien before.

“Reminds me of the Zaross, don’t you think? Maybe they’re fake” Rose and the Doctor exchanged a look, Jack didn’t often feel left out of the loop, but he did now.

“I’m sorry, Zaross?” he still had his standard smirk, but it was beginning to become quite strained.

“Fake TV aliens” Rose explained it as quickly and as efficiently as she could. Jack nodded, still feeling quite bewildered.

“We have met quite a few TV related aliens, it’s kind of funny” The Doctor remarked, Rose made a sort of positive hum noise.

“Anyway. We need to identify that alien, and we need to find out what it’s here for and why it’s killing people.” She realised that if she continued her conversation tangent with the Doctor, she was just going to get distracted.

“Jack, I want you in here, access the archive we have, see if it’s recognisable. Doctor, we need to see if the attacks have all been in the same area, and then we have to investigate it. I want to get out there as soon as possible. We don’t need any more deaths” She had suddenly switched into her usual manner she had at work. She had adopted an authoritative tone. The Doctor mock saluted her.

“Shut up” she held back a smile. The Doctor was teasing her, but he felt almost giddy with a mix of pride, love, and other less saintly feelings. He gave her his cheekiest grin.

“Where did you learn that trick?” he asked, grabbing her hand almost absent mindely and whisking her out of the room.

“Well, work here for as long as I have and you tend to pick up things from others”

“You couldn’t have been here for more than a year or two, surely that’s not that long in a government institution”

“Yeah well, job like this has a very high turnover” She sighed, that was why she avoided making work friends. She got worried sick sometimes, her dad was often out in the field at cybus factories and the like, and she was always paranoid he would never come home. She wasn’t always worried for herself, mostly her mum and Tony.

“Rose Tyler, you’re wizard!” he marvelled at her. In the year when she had been gone, she had changed so much. He felt almost jealous, because he had spent a lot of that time moping about, while Rose had learned physics, designed a dimension cannon and was a successful UNIT agent. Rose tucked her hair behind her ear bashfully

“Yeah well, none of this would have happened without you. God, I’d probably be working in a shop or something” she sighed heavily at the thought. The work seemed even more mind bendingly boring now that she’d seen space.

“I just realised, we didn’t check the attack location” The Doctor blamed that oversight on his new human body. His brain seemed more prone to forgetfulness. Rose burst out in a hearty laugh.

“Don’t worry, we’ve got computers down on the second floor, and we need gear. The Colonel there hates me, but he has to let me use his gear” she grinned devilishly. He looped his arm around her shoulder, and they quickened down the hallway together. They were mostly making pointless sort of small talk, the usual kind. The Doctor tried to tell her an impressive story about an encounter with a _particularly_ aggressive alien, but she silenced him with a kiss.

“I feel like being quiet for a bit, she said. She wanted to enjoy the Doctor’s company. So he obliged her, and they stood, his arm around her shoulder, the only sound was the hum of the slow elevator. She didn’t really care that displays of such casual affection were something that stood out at her workplace. They stayed like that until the elevator beeped and the doors slid open with a whir. Then Rose separated from the Doctor. Dealing with the Colonel down here was something best done alone. She entered a door halfway down the hall, and as soon as the Colonel saw her, he let out a massive sigh. It was Rose Tyler, that hot-heated young woman who thought that because she had a rich father and an average intelligence, that she could storm in and undermine his authority.

“Miss Tyler, how can I help you? My men are bus-“ he started to begin a passive aggressive rant.

“We need a computer with data on the recent attacks and gear for the field. It’s urgent” she commanded him, technically, though she held no proper title, Rose was high up in the pecking order at UNIT. She was respected, and also had been the best at dealing with aliens. He groaned a little under his breath. He couldn’t help thinking that she was a rather smart girl for some peroxide blonde chav. But he gave in anyway, pointing her to a computer, and nodding at the same suited man from that morning. He stood up, and headed into another room, presumably the weapons cupboard. The Doctor had been in the doorway the whole time, content with letting Rose be the leader for once. He stepped out only when she started towards the computer. Casting a neutral glance at the Colonel, he received an icy stare in return. The Colonel couldn’t help thinking _great, now she’s got a man-slave._ It was a good thing humans can’t hear each other’s thoughts.

“Look, all the attacks are near Westminster, just nearby. Nothing that’s too out of the way.” Rose pointed at the cluster, it was almost unusually close.

“Can you get that screenclip up again, I want to take a closer look at that thing” The Doctor sort of half muttered, very much aware of the dead eyed stares all around him, the workers must be tired. Rose obliged him, and also brought up a rough sketch next to it. He reached to slip on his glasses, once again kicking himself mentally for realising they weren’t there. Studying the picture in his head, he went through the encyclopedia that was his brain.

“It looks a bit like a cross between Hoix and Weevil, don’t you think?” Rose pointed at it, glancing at the Doctor. He started.

“That’s why I didn’t recognise it! Both of them are rift creatures, cousins of each other. Maybe they both evolved from this original form in the other universe, and it didn’t happen in this universe” The Doctor realised, rift creatures weren’t always his strong suit, generally Torchwood had kept rift matters in capable hands.

“Is there a UNIT base near the rift in Cardiff?” he asked Rose. She thought about it, as she had always worked in the London, and had scarcely bothered to care about Cardiff after the rift had failed to help her

“There’s an old one in the sewers, left over from Torchwood, all the members were killed though, maybe a good ten years ago now” Rose hadn’t been there, but had read the incident report a few weeks ago. Another odd hobby of hers. The Doctor grinned.

“Perfect, once we catch this one, we take it there and set up a temporary base” He grinned down at her, and gave her a light kiss on the forehead, mindful that they were technically at work. Rose thought about it.

“We should find a place to stay there, I imagine an old sewer isn’t super comfy. But first we need to find this creature” she muttered, making another note in what felt like a mental binder book. The Doctor nodded.

“Come on, Jack can handle stuff here, we need to find that thing” The Doctor felt odd having the parallel slightly unfamiliar Jack, but then again, he was also sort of parallel and sort of unfamiliar with himself. An odd sensation, but something new. He couldn’t feel that strange aura around Jack either, which was allowing him to properly enjoy seeing his old friend again. Rose nudged him.

“Come on” she whispered, getting out of the chair and tugging him along in one swift motion. On the way, a pair of belts with guns had been set out for them. The Doctor picked his up with a layer of apprehension, he didn’t approve, but he hardly saw the practicality of arguing right now, and Rose knew not to used it lethally. When they exited, he spotted the Colonel giving them a dirty glare. He resisted making a snide remark, usually his remarks were not of the especially snide variety, but he felt extra venomous lately. When they marched out of the room, the workers didn’t look up from their desks.

“We should take the teleport, it’s closer, and it doesn’t take ages” Rose led him down the corridors, and he thought he vaguely recognised some of them. He and Rose walked almost in tandem and soldiers nodded as they passed. Rose acknowledged them with a wave.

“So where should we start?” Rose asked him, they were in the corridor leading to the rickety teleporter.

“Well, maybe in back alleyways, places without many witnesses” he suggested.

“Looks like Smith and Lewis are back again” Rose grinned at him and he grinned back.

“We’re master investigators”

“Well I hope our master investigators can catch this thing before it kills someone else” The Brigadier’s voice came out of the half open door. Rose snorted, holding in a giggle.

“Yes _boss_ ” The Doctor’s grin turned a bit childish. The Doctor was not used to using that word. They entered and saw the Brigadier standing next to a suited man who was currently quite stony faced.

“Doctor, I’d like you to meet Ianto Jones. He’s one of our best, and I thought you might require his assistance. Rose, I believe you’ve met before” The Brigadier nodded at the suited man, Ianto. He responded with a close lipped smile.

“Nice to meet you, Ianto Jones” The Doctor reached out a hand, and Ianto took it, they exchanged a rather awkward handshake. Rose coughed.

“Ianto, we have an associate in our office upstairs, would you go help him? I think we’ve got the field work covered” She smiled at him, they often talked in the lunchroom together, at least before she left for the other dimensions. He smiled back, nodded in acknowledgment and turned to exit the room

“Carfeul, you know what Jack’s like” The Doctor muttered in her ear.

“Ianto can take care of himself, it’s fine” Rose reassured him.

“If you could focus on the task at hand?”

“Sorry Brigadier” Rose sheepishly apologised.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took ages and I finally have an actual ending in sight :) I'm also thinking of make a chapter with illustrations at some point, though that's a challenge


	8. Smith and Lewis

“Shit! Look over here” Rose cursed, she had known what awaited her in this alley from the smell, but she had hoped it was a trash smell. Alas the world was cruel. The Doctor raced in and flinched at the pile of fresh gore left on the concrete.

“It has to be nearby, I’m going after it” Rose said it out of practicality and an overwhelming desire to get away from the blood smelling pile.

“Wait!” The Doctor called after her, but she had bolted away before he could warn her.

“I guess that’s the result of years of corridor running…” he sighed to himself, before taking a mental note as to where the remains of the body lay on the ground, he had to make sure Rose didn’t turn into a similar gore pile.

Rose ran at a careful pace, fast enough to keep the creature in sight and just slow enough to conserve energy, people stared as they passed by, but she’d already taken the liberty of asking UNIT to invent a cover story. It still felt odd though, being watched. She dodged people with a precise accuracy. The creature was running, no longer caring if it was seen or not. It just wanted to find a place to turn on the blonde human girl. She looked lean, not like his usual targets. She didn’t have much meat on her bones. It turned into a dark alleyway, fully intending to turn on the girl once they reached the end.

“You have got to be kidding me” Rose breathily managed to mutter to herself as she finally started to see the corner she had backed herself into. She instinctively put a hand on her gun. It was loaded with special stun bullets, but she still despised using it.

“Rose?” she could hear the Doctor hollering from somewhere nearby. He was huffing a little as he had sprinted at an unnecessarily fast pace to catch up with her. He also had a hand on his gun, less hesitant about using it. When he sprinted past one alley, he managed to spot Rose having a stare down with the creature. He almost cartoonishly slid to a halt.

“Excuse me, I think that’s my friend you’ve got there-“ he was swiftly interrupted by a sharp growl and a withering stare from Rose.

“Alright, not in the mood for talking, that’s fair enough”

“Doctor! Help me get him tied up” Rose hissed. He nodded and pulled out a very strong piece of cord. It was incredibly heavy for a small rope. Rose had unfortunately let herself distracted for a second, which was ample time for the creature to launch at her.

“Shit!” she cursed when its sharp teeth made contact with her shoulder. In a frenzy, she managed to get a hand on her gun and bash the creature over the head with it. It’s teeth slipped out of her shoulder and she felt a great deal of pressure that had lifted, mentally and physically. The Doctor slipped the cord around its clawed hands efficiently and securely, and moved to keep a hand holding Rose up.

“Oi, I can stand up myself you know” Rose pouted.

“Yeah well you’re losing blood fast, so you could faint”

“You’re like my mum sometimes! I’m an adult” she winced a little from a wave of pain. The Doctor looked both disgusted and very concerned.

“I am not the least bit like your mother!” he huffed. He pulled his little boy face.

“Relax, I’m kidding, do you want to call UNIT? We can’t get this all the way back to the tower alone”

“Oh yeah… I’m not quite used to this yet” _the TARDIS would make this easier_. The Doctor couldn’t help thinking to himself. _No, I can’t think like that, it could be five or more years until it’s ready_. Rose held out her hand, and her mobile phone. It was the exact same one he had first altered for her on platform one. For some reason it felt sentimental to him.

“I thought you would’ve gotten a new phone, they’re all modern and fancy here” he remarked.

“I couldn’t bear getting rid of it. I must’ve tried calling you a thousand times on his thing. It turns out it doesn’t work across universes” Rose had a melancholy sheen in her eyes. The Doctor gulped, a lump had mysteriously materialised in his throat. He would have said something, but instead he dialled UNIT, not wanting to accidentally let the creature wake up. The air already smelled strongly of Rose’s blood. Rose took off her hoodie and expertly tore a strip from around the hem of her t shirt, strapping it around her shoulder to contain any excess blood. It wasn’t super effective for long periods of time, but would work for now. The Doctor was yammering away on the phone to a nameless UNIT officer, no doubt bogging him down with mildly irrelevant facts. Rose managed t spot the creatures beady eyes open and she put a hand on her gun again and kept an extra tight grip on the cord, all while adjusting her position to behind the creature, out of the way of its fearsome jaw. The Doctor was far enough away that he didn’t have to worry.

“Careful, it might get riled up by the blood” The Doctor warned her.

“I know what I’m doing, after all, you taught me” Rose managed a grin before cursing under her breath. The creature was convulsing, trying to sink its jaw into anything flesh.

“I’m warning you, don’t make this harder. Though I’m not sure you can understand me, you don’t seem to speak a lot” The creature responded with a growl laced with slobber.

“Euch, I can’t wait until you’re not my problem anymore. I hate the slobbery aliens” another even more slobbery growl.

“I could swear you’re making fun of me” Rose muttered. The wide eyed joy of aliens and space had quickly disappeared after her first encounter with the unfriendly and slobbery aliens.

“Rose, can you try hold that thing still? I’ve had an idea” The Doctor had put the phone away into a pocket and was very concerned about the possibility of Rose getting hurt again.

“I’ll try, but maybe be quick, yeah?” The Doctor didn’t reply, instead taking a few cautious steps towards the creature, he reached out his hands and ever so gently, laid them on each temple. The skin was cold and wrinkly and felt a bit like raw meat. He closed his eyes and reached out into the creature’s mind, using his leftover telepathic abilities. He visualised it as a golden tendril, but knew that it was rather more synapse-y. If synapse-y was a word. He reached into the brain, and let himself soothe it, calming the panicked frenzy of its brain. Rose had a hand just centimetres away from the Doctor’s, prepared to snatch him away in case of a bite or snarl, but she saw the creature’s jaw and shoulder slacken, and a small trail of drool leaked from its lips.

“Nature’s best sedative, telepathy.” The Doctor grinned at her while removing his hands as gently as he had placed them

“You couldn’t have done that earlier?” Rose asked, but in a light-hearted way, rather than an accusational tone

“I wasn’t thinking straight, only occurred to me a minute ago. How are you?” he asked her.

“Yeah I’m fine, a visit to the doctor and rest will do it” she had sustained worse injuries before.

“Good thing we get to go on a trip” the Doctor grinned

“Cardiff? Not exactly the most exciting city in the world” Rose grumbled.

“Don’t say that! Besides, I’m sure the pleasure of my company would surely be enough” he attempted what he thought was a confident grin. Rose laughed at him and wrapped him into a gentle hug. The some blood on her shoulder was rubbing off on his new suit, but he couldn’t care less.

“Yeah, I reckon it should be” she murmured into his ear, the warmth of her breath made him shiver. It was a strong contrast to the colder London air. She loosened her grip on him after her shoulder started to ache, and he pulled back too, just so he wouldn’t hurt her. Human bodies were so fragile, like a delicate glass vase. He supposed he was a glass vase now too. She stared at him, he was furrowing his brow, as if he was in deep thought. Unfortunately the moment of serenity was interrupted by the arrival of three troops and Captain Pete Tyler.

“One thing I’m looking forward to, a bit of alone time” Rose muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the Doctor to hear. He nodded in agreement, he missed having the peace and quiet of the TARDIS in times like these.

“I’m assuming that you sedated this thing, right? How did you do that?” Pete asked, gesturing to the creature, still staring into space.

“Trade secret” The Doctor winked, not particularly wanting to get questioned about his telepathy. Pete glanced at the large red spot on Rose’s shoulder, only half concealed by her stained shirt fabric. He had a concerned look on it, he opened his mouth to say something but Rose gave him the look. He was a good father, even though it was an odd situation, but sometimes he could be a little over-protective in his own way. Especially about her mum, who he seen die only a few years before. The troops had already threaded an extra cord through the existing one and started leading the morose creature towards Big Ben. Rose, Pete and The Doctor followed shortly after, Rose leaning on the Doctor in an effort to alleviate the ache from her shoulder. He wrapped and arm gently around her waist.

“I suppose we should pack for Cardiff, better to get there sooner rather than later” The Doctor said.

“Yeah, I reckon we leave tomorrow, we can pack and all the DNA samples from the creature should be done” Rose concurred.

“Where are you staying while you’re there?” Pete asked Rose.

“There’s an abandoned Torchwood base right next to the Rift, probably some space in there” Rose wasn’t particularly bothered about if it was comfortable or not. Pete raised an eyebrow

“Your mother hears about that and she’ll be on the phone to the best hotel in the city. You know how she is” he said in a half warning. It was his indirect way of saying no.

“I’m 23 years old. I’m pretty sure I can sleep rough for a few weeks” she moaned, both her parents always seemed to be making up for lost time with her. They had even offered to buy her a flat when she first got here. But that would have been accepting that she was stuck in this universe. At the time that was never gonna happen.

“What are we going to do about the TARDIS? Suppose we end up there for weeks? I need to know what’s going on” The Doctor said with the shock of this recent realisation.

“I’ll keep an eye on it, let you know if anything seems wrong. I can email you pictures if you need them” Pete offered, he usually wouldn’t undertake a task like this for anyone, but he felt a particular respect for the Doctor, and saw this as a way of expressing it. He also quietly considered the possibility of the Doctor becoming his almost son in law, but didn’t dwell too much. That was Jackie’s thing. The Doctor blinked at Pete, grateful, but uneasy. He responded with a nod and extended eye contact. Pete was almost unnerved by the intensity of the stare, but he got the message.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure he’ll take good care of her” Rose laid a hand on the Doctor’s shoulder and smiled in her usual reassuring way. His tense expression loosened into a grin. He could hardly believe that he had only been here for a few days. He thought of how much he might like spending the rest of his life with Rose, and how the slower lifestyle might actually suit him.

“So, looking forward to Cardiff?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I went back and checked my last chaper and there were a few grammatical errors. I am MORTIFIED. I really need to start spell checking thoroughly. I'm so excited to get to the ending, cause i've written part of an epilogue already hehe


	9. Cardiff

“No offense or anything, but this place is a dump” Jack said, warily treading through what remained of the old Torchwood base. It had been decommissioned after UNIT was established, seemingly not essential to operations. The computers and desks were gone, the only things inside were broken, dirty or just junk.

“I’m sure we won’t be here for long, just sorting out the rift” Rose sighed, not too heavily, there was a slightly sewery smell in the air. She was carrying a large case filled with technology, as were the Doctor, Jack and Ianto. They had to set up a temporary base here. She wondered how the team here didn’t go insane from the smell, juts subtle enough to not be overwhelming, but still disgusting.

“Well, it’s got plenty of space. It even has a little shop” The Doctor was grinning, he loved places like this. It was Torchwood, but the Torchwood in this universe seemed different to the one headed by Yvonne Hartman.

“It’s not actually a shop, it’s a tourist’s office” Ianto corrected him. The Doctor’s face crumpled in disappointment.

“Well, speaking of tourism, anyone wanna go see the sights after this?” Jack asked, wanting desperately to go anywhere that wasn’t inside of a building or a car. He was looking pointedly at Ianto. Rose shook her head

“Personally, after spending a few hours in the car with you two, I’m about ready to pass out. I’d forgotten about your gob” She said, nudging the Doctor affectionately. The bliss of being with the Doctor again after years was nowhere near rubbing off, even if she had to stay for an indefinite amount of time in Cardiff. She found a reasonably clean and clear corner and put down the bulky case. She stretched her arms and groaned, the weight of all the tech inside had made her left shoulder ache. The Doctor dropped his case considerably less carefully and focused his attention on the giant silver tower running through the centre of the room.

“This place is leaking time energy, it’s a wonder more stuff hasn’t gotten through the rift. I wouldn’t be surprised if every mysterious disappearance around here was the rift” he muttered to himself. But that still didn’t explain why a rift creature was in London. He thought that it could have been the fact that the rift wasn’t as closed as it’s parallel, but that wasn’t how it worked. And now that he was thinking about it, bringing the TARDIS would’ve been a great idea because it might’ve helped her grow. _Nevermind that, focus on the issue at hand_ , the rational part of him thought.

“Well Ianto, you wouldn’t mind showing me around would you. I’ve never been to 21st century Cardiff, or Cardiff in general” Jack’s voice echoed. Ianto nodded and they exited the room hastily, leaving behind two more cases of tech.

“Just my luck, I have to do the unpacking” Rose grumbled. She was sick of packing and unpacking. Each case contained a computer, and she had packed a few bits of stuff that the Doctor had deemed useful.

“Tell me, what the hell is this thing for?” Rose asked, waving a broken piece of shiny cord in the air. He had insisted that it was ‘absolutely necessary’

“You never know when you need a spare wire. That’s made out of a combination of metals. It’s basically an all purpose wire. Shame you lot haven’t come up with anything similar.” The Doctor grabbed the wire from her hand and shoved it deep into his pocket. She rolled her eyes.

“Can you help me set up? You’ll have plenty of time for staring at that thing later” She beckoned him over. She secretly thought he was a bit like a puppy. Especially when he was upset. He bounded over, taking another case and digging through the piles of crud he had insisted on bringing.

“This is a device that can change anything into another state of matter! It can rearrange atoms! I never thought I’d see another one again” He shoved it in the air and waved it in Rose’s face. She raised an eyebrow and smiled.

“It’s broken” she pointed at the large circuit board hanging out from the side of the interface.

“That is besides the point. I haven’t held one of these since before th-“ he stopped mid sentence and paled. He could feel the words in his head, but couldn’t quite get them to come out of his mouth. He could feel his hands start trembling and a small pinprick pain in the back of his skull. He could still see the faces of the children, and the fire. And he could hear the screaming. He could clearly remember daleks. He had forgotten what he had done less than a week ago, he had simply acted like nothing happened. He felt a wave of shame.

“Doctor?” Rose’s voice pulled him back into reality. Her face was concerned, and he distinctly remembered this happening before.

“Anyway, look at this. This machine can patch up open wounds with just one of your skin cells. It made a Band-Aid out of your own skin” He picked up another device and let the one he had held seconds earlier clatter on the ground.

“Doctor” Rose gave him a stern but reassuring look. Her eyes were fixed on him, not on the frankly impressive medical technology he was showing off. Rose was determined for him to talk to her, he always shrugged off anything serious, at least until it was too late. She didn’t think too much about the memory that conjured, it made her feel funny, like she had somehow betrayed the original Doctor.

“What? Something on my face? Maybe I need a shave” he said with a slightly more nervous inflection than usual. It was hard to tell for strangers, but Rose knew his frenetic energy so well, the smallest difference stood out to her.

“Doctor, you can talk to me” she was still looking at him dead in the eyes. The Doctor knew that she wanted him to open up, but he didn’t want to burden her with his own dirty laundry. He felt as if telling her about the firestorm in his head would taint something. He still had the tiniest inkling of a feeling that he wasn’t quite as good as his other self. She had fallen in love with that version of him. The good version. For once he didn’t quite know what to say. Though he himself had been right leaving him here. Though he hadn’t yet had the courage to fully open up to her. Her gaze was still intensely focused on him. A silent but stubborn way of her not giving up.

“How long d’you reckon this’ll take to set up? I’d give it an hour at the maximum” he drawled. He had more important things to do than whinge about his own problems. Lives were at stake. Rose felt a flare of annoyance. She’d had her fill of being brushed off, sure her annoyance might be the fact that she woke up at three in the morning, but it was an annoyance that she hadn’t dared to bring up ever.

“Please, if you’re gonna live normally you have to start talking to me properly” she was giving him what he would classify as a disappointed look.

“I don’t want to weigh you down with my own issues” he responded to her, still dodging the question. She gave him a stare that could kill most life forms. He sighed, trying not let his voice shake. This whole situation made him very nervous. Rose did what she had done back when he had a different face. She silently embraced him, it was her way of providing comfort. He could feel a distinct burning in his eyes. Tears.

“Tell me what’s wrong, you know I will never think less of you for it” she murmured at a volume that was just audible. He could feel cracks in his façade. He had never been able to hide anything from Rose for too long.

“Don’t you ever wish that you could’ve gone with him?” he asked her. They both knew exactly ‘him’ was. Her jaw tightened.

“I don’t know, I do miss him and the TARDIS. But I made the choice to stay here, I know he wouldn’t have taken me back and not thought any lesser of me, but it’ll be better this way” Rose replied, not really wanting to elaborate on the last part.

“I feel like I’m some crappy substitute. I can never be as good as him. I shouldn’t even carry the name” he sighed. Rose noted the resemblance to his last self. She had noticed that sometimes in the quieter moments of the day, his face took on that distinctive expression she had seen so often before the Christmas invasion. She knew what he felt guilty for.

“Doctor, you can’t go back and change your own personal history. You know that, that’s what you would tell me. You can only focus on the future, so try make it a good one, yeah?” she was somehow one of the wisest people he had met, she always had been. He felt reassured though, that she was so steadfastly dedicated to him.

“Thank you” he felt adequate, for the first time in a long time. She pulled him into a tight hug, and he reciprocated gratefully. He saw a melancholy flicker in her eyes, a tiny one he had noticed over the course of the week of his new life.

“Your turn now” he was smiling, but the intensity in his gaze was deadly serious.

“Nah, you don’t need to hear it” she laughed, looking away and adjusting a lock of her hair, twisting it around her finger nervously.

“Remember? Living normally? You said that to me just a minute ago”

“I forgot how good you were with this kind of thing. You’d make a great psychologist” she joked. He considered her statement.

“I’d be wizard” he grinned. He could see her biting her lip in an attempt not to laugh at him. He pulled a mock offended face.

“I would be! I am very easy to talk to, not to mention dazzlingly intelligent”

“Not to mention modest” she added. He burst out into a fit of laughter, she joined him and the cacophony would have been audible to anyone else in the gigantic room. The next few hours they spent talking and laughing, all while somehow doing their work. Jack and Ianto didn’t come back until work was almost finished, so they took over and let the Doctor and Rose go out to do a bit of their own sightseeing.

“This must be so boring for you now, it’s not even the interesting part of Earth” Rose smiled sadly, they were strolling on the boardwalk in front of the tourist’s office. The waters made a gentle metronome of splashing noises, and The Doctor felt strangely relaxed. There was an inexplicable quality to the sounds of water. Rose felt almost the same, even though it dredged up her won bittersweet memories. The Doctor took her hand and led her to the bar at the water’s edge. They were standing directly over it.

“I don’t think it’s so bad. You can appreciate the little things, besides plenty of interesting stuff has happened here” he said, focusing on some distant point in the distance.

“Yeah?” Rose leaned over the bar and looked into his eyes. The last time they had been in Cardiff together they had no time to enjoy the peace. There was nobody else around, dusk had settled in and people had already gone home after a long day at work.

“I just can’t remember it right now. But there’s still some stuff” he grinned at her. She rolled her eyes but smiled back. They did spend an awful lot of time smiling like idiots at each other.

“The whole gang’s back in Cardiff again, even if Jack doesn’t remember and Mickey isn’t here” she sighed, a wistful smile on her face.

“I miss that idiot” The Doctor muttered under his breath, Mickey had grown on him, he didn’t like to admit that though.

“Did you just say what I thought you did?” Rose shifted closer to him, sliding along the bar.

“Well, I suppose he’s not here to hear me” The Doctor’s tone was surprisingly gloomy. Rose did feel a pang of guilt over how she’d treated him. But over the years they had come to terms with what had happened. He was one of her best friends now. Well, he had been. He wasn’t here now

“I wonder how he’s doing” Rose thought out loud.

“I reckon he’s just fine, not as much of an idiot anymore. Plus Martha and Jack are with him” The Doctor placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Rose glanced up at the stars in the sky, pinpricks in the black curtain of night. The Doctor looked up too, the first time for ages, he had been determined not to, because it could remind him of how very _stuck_ he was. He noticed there were a lot less of them, constellations left unfinished. He guessed that the damage had been done here, and the stars weren’t coming back. That reminded him of his own situation. Rose saw the dark look cross his face, and nudged him gently.

“Come on, let’s go rest” she said, he looked over at her and grinned.

“I’ve always wondered the appeal of spending most of your time unconscious” he smirked

“It’s great, you’re gonna love it” Rose smiled back. The Doctor hadn’t been as inclined to sleep, he didn’t need it as much as humans did. Often there had been times where had stayed awake in the control room lost in his own thoughts while his friends slept in the bedrooms provided for them by the TARDIS. He missed that peace and quiet and the constant stability of having the TARDIS.

“Where are we staying? I don’t particularly want to sleep in there, it’s a bit damp” he joked, he had slept in worse places before.

“Ha ha. No Mum booked us a room in a place nearby. She said it was a ‘luxury’ suite” Rose sighed. Her mother did mean well, but staying in a fancy hotel room was always a bit strange for Rose. She had grown used to practicality over comfort.

“I wonder if they’ll give us free soap, I should start a collection” The Doctor thought.

“You’re daft” Rose pulled on his arm, and started to lead him up from the boardwalk, they continued to laugh and talk well after they reached their fancy hotel room. They found that even though they had been awake for hours on end, the conversation went on for far longer than it should’ve. They fell asleep sprawled on the king size bed, arms tangled around each other. They were still wearing their clothes from the day and Rose hadn’t bothered removing her makeup.


	10. Craf

The Doctor woke up the next morning to find Rose sitting in the crushed velvet armchair opposite the bed, drinking from a pale mug, presumably filled with coffee. She had already dressed into a pair of dark jeans and a white tank top. There was an odd fuzzy feeling in his head.

“Rise and shine. We’ve got a rift to fix” Rose grinned, with the sun backlighting her, he could have sworn she had blinded him. He groaned and let his face fall into the soft pillow. Rose could hear him grumbling, she knew that leaving a mug out with some coffee powder had been good foresight.

“Bloody humans, you spend half your time dead to the world and then can’t even wake up. God I could break something” his voice cracked a little. Rose couldn’t help laughing at him. He lifted his face just to glare at her, but she didn’t stop laughing.

“The Lord of Time can’t get out of bed?” she joked, he rolled his eyes.

“You can blame Donna, I’m not at all like this usually. You’re like a beast” he looked at her accusingly. She pulled a mockingly hurt expression

“Careful, you’re gonna be making your own breakfast with an attitude like that” She had that gloating smirk on, he was torn between finding it immensely vexing and sort of beautiful _Not the time_. He groaned, pushing himself out of the bed and up onto his feet. He stretched his arms above his head, feeling a satisfying sort of tingle.

“Good morning” He stepped across and sort of awkwardly patted her on the head. She looked up at him and laughed, before grabbing him by the lapels and giving him a coffee tasting kiss. He found that he quite liked it.

“Now, time for breakfast” She said, motioning for him to move so she could get up. He moved swiftly out the way, and she almost bounded to the small kitchen space. It was small because nobody ever used it, often opting for room service or a local restaurant. Rose had found time to purchase enough ingredients for a proper fried breakfast. The Doctor figured this was the ideal time to get dressed, so he found his bag sitting on the floor next to the door. Inside were a few t shirts, and one other suit, he grabbed it and a green t shirt, and swiftly changed in the surprisingly large en-suite bathroom. Rose was in the kitchen, carefully watching two eggs, four slices of bacon and two pieces of black pudding sizzle in the pan. She had managed to perfect a technique for cooking it perfectly. By the time the Doctor had come back in to the main room, Rose was scraping the pieces of fried food onto plates with freshly made toast.

“a l’air délicieux, madame”

“Merci” Rose responded, she didn’t know much more French than rudimentary phrases. The Doctor slid into one of the fancy modern looking chairs. Rose laid down the plate with his breakfast, before sitting down herself. The table was small, so it made for a tight squeeze when trying to eat. They kept bumping feet beneath the table.

“So, with the rift creatures. I think we should start looking at any suspicious attacks happening around the area, yeah?” Rose asked him, he nodded. In his own joy he had almost forgotten the serious problem they were facing.

“Yes, that might be a good idea. We need to map it out, see if we can draw any conclusions” he agreed. She could see his brow furrow in concern.

“Do you reckon that we could do something to the rift? Regulate it maybe?” she asked him, her experience with the dimension cannon had given her some rudimentary knowledge of dimensions and rifts. She could see the Doctor drift off into his own head, deep in thought.

“I want to monitor the rift activity first before putting a regulator nearby, could go very wrong if we’re not careful”

“Right” Rose responded, taking a final bite of her breakfast.

“That was pretty good, if I say so myself” she grinned at him. She stood up and slotted her plate into the already open dishwasher, and her cutlery into the basket, it made a large clatter. The Doctor hurriedly finished his food and gave Rose his best pleading puppy face. She rolled her eyes and took his dish from him. After Rose and the Doctor packed up and had fully gotten ready, they headed towards the bay area and the plaza with the large water tower.

“Look who’s here” Jack said, raising an eyebrow when Rose and the Doctor entered through the large gear shaped door. They were at least an hour late. Jack seemed to be engineering some kind of large gun, with a few odd flashing lights on the end.

“What’s that?” Rose asked him, concern crossing her face. The Doctor, instead of screwing up his face in disgust or going off on some anti-gun rant, decided to take the gun from him and start examining it himself.

“Rudimentary laser beam, best you can do with materials like this. Most of it is from tracking devices, musical instruments, other handy gadgets. Not much to make a weapon out of” he said, staring intently at the rough handiwork, noticing where things could be improved. Rose came over and grabbed the laser herself, placing it on the table. She had used guns and stuff before, but she wasn’t going to do it for this, she had to be a good example.

“Can’t you make like a tranquiliser or something? We don’t wanna start killing these things willy nilly” she gave the Doctor a look. He should be the one doing this, not her. Jack sighed.

“It’s easier to use this, tranquilising it only solves the problem temporarily” He said to her. She made an effort not to glare.

“We don’t know enough about these creatures, what if they’re not all violent? We can’t just start killing all of ‘em. We’d be no better than daleks”

“Daleks?” Jack asked, he had never heard of that creature. The Doctor stiffened.

“Yeah, we should find a way to sedate them, then we can store them down in the holding cells. That way we can work out more about them, and hopefully send them back” She had found the cells quite by chance, studying the floor plan on her way over. The Doctor rested his head in his hand in thought.

“Oh!” he exclaimed. Rose and Jack both jumped in surprise, they could hear Ianto curse in the distance.

“Rose Tyler you are brilliant! I can use the Telepathy I retained as a tranquiliser! I already used it on the first creature!” he shouted, ecstatically. Rose grinned at him.

“We should name this thing, instead of calling it the ‘creature’” Ianto suggested, emerging from one corner of the room, his shirt had a small coffee stain on it.

“I’m terrible at naming stuff” Rose said, knowing whatever she came up with was going to be mediocre at best.

“Rifter?” Jack suggested, because it did sound kinda cool. The Doctor shook his head.

“What about the Craf?” Ianto suggested. It was a random name, just sort of popped up in his head.

“That’s actually pretty good, maybe we’ll use it” Rose feeling more and more like a secret agent every second. Despite travelling in the TARDIS, she had never had the full cool sci-fi secret agent experience. It made her feel a bit giddy with childish joy.

“So, The Doctor will help us sedate the Craf, but we need someone with the laser and something to tie it up with” Rose glared at the mention of the laser, and Jack pointed to her still injured shoulder, and showed his slightly pink hand, which had healed surprisingly quickly. Rose sighed, and didn’t object anymore.

“We need people back here monitoring the rift, checking to see what happens if another comes through” Rose said. Not noticing Ianto staring at something on the other side of the room, just beyond their sight. He was frozen in place, in all his years at UNIT, and before in Torchwood he had never encountered an alien, let alone a dangerous one. There, in the corner was a Craf, staring directly at Ianto, sizing him up. It had seemingly just appeared out of nowhere.

“Jack?” he called, weakly, afraid that a sudden loud sound might be the last thing that ever came out of his mouth. Jack was too wrapped up in planning a strategy for the creature that was less than 100 metres away from him.

“JACK!” Ianto called again, sure enough, the loud sound set the creature in motion. It rushed at him with incredible ferocity, Jack, Rose and the Doctor had barely turned around before it had sunk it’s yellow teeth into Ianto’s flesh. Jack let out a torrent of swear words, before grabbing the laser beam, and the Doctor sprung into action in front of him. He bounded across the room, and before the Craf could take another bit of Ianto, he grabbed the creature by the temples, and kept as tight a hold as he could. The creature let go of Ianto, thrashing around, spit flicking, claws outstretched and scratching any surface it came near. Ianto let out a weak groan, before stumbling backwards into a railing. Jack lifted the giant gun, and pointed it directly at the Craf. Rose shouted

“NO! You could hit the Doctor!” she was suddenly and frighteningly aware of the Doctor’s newfound fragility. Jack smirked at her in that way that used to make her stomach flutter but now sent a chill down her spine

“I got it, don’t worry” And he fired the laser right into the creature’s foot. It let out an ear piercing screech and The Doctor froze, unharmed but shocked. The creature curled up on the floor in a ball. Rose could hear it making small whimpering noises, like a puppy. The Doctor carefully leaned down, and put his hands gently on the creature’s temples. Within an instant, it’s muscles slackened and The Doctor let go of it, stepping away almost delicately.

“That was anticlimactic” Ianto remarked, very casually for someone who was currently bleeding more than anybody should.

“You could’ve died, that’s not exactly anticlimactic” Rose replied, turning around to find the medical supply kit, she could have sworn that it was already on the bench. After her search was proven to be futile, she turned and saw that Jack had been one step ahead of her, he was already using the machinery that he had been subjected to with a deft hand. The Doctor was attempting to lift the Craf, but it was a great deal heavier than he had expected. Rose surmised that he would require her help, so left Jack to tend to Ianto.

“Beware, it’s heavier than it looks, and kind of sticky too” The Doctor joked.

“You forget that I have had my fair share of this kind of thing, remember when that blue alien spat in my _eye_. Some first date that was!” She mockingly pouted, though sometimes she remembered how gross that had been in her nightmares. The Doctor grinned at her

“And yet here we are” he said, with what he hoped was a degree of charm.

“Come on, this thing won’t get into a holding cell on it’s own” Rose said, tugging on the arm of the Craf. It was slightly sticky, The Doctor let out a _ergh_ and gingerly hauled one arm over a shoulder, he felt sad about this creature running his new suit. She did the same, making the weight slightly easier to carry. She heard a strange gurgle noise.

“Is that you? I never knew that a full English was that bad” she asked the Doctor, a cheeky smile on her face.

“No!” he looked genuinely horrified.

“Relax, that was a joke” he sighed in relief. Neither made anymore attempts at jokes until they had finally left the Craf in a glass doored cell deeper in the sewer-base. The extended amount of time having to lift such a heavy thing had left them both exhausted. After a few minutes of laboured breathing, a snorting sound emerged from the cell, and Rose saw the creature start to awaken. She stood straighter and stared at it cautiously. She didn’t know what the clear wall was made of. The Doctor had practically read her mind.

“It’s stronger than a fifteen foot iron wall, made out of a clear metal. Usually you don’t get this here for another…. Twenty or so years”. His confidence was enough to inspire some kind of relaxation.

“How do we communicate with it?” she asked him. He shrugged.

“It’s unknown territory, I don’t know this creature, so I wouldn’t know the language. The TARDIS isn’t here, so it can’t translate. Well, I suppose it couldn’t anyway” his sigh was surprisingly pessimistic.

“Can you do the telepathy thing again? Maybe you can communicate through like, brainwaves or something” Rose suggested the first idea that came to her. The Doctor’s face lit up.

“Rose, you’re a genius. I can’t do sophisticated communication for long periods, but maybe I can use information from it’s memories to get information”

“What, like little snapshots?”

“Exactly, little tiny images I can use to build a bigger picture”

“How are you gonna get near that thing? It’ll tear you to pieces and eat you as an appetiser”

“I think I’m a full meal, personally” he grinned at her cheekily. She just scoffed.

“Anyway, we need to find a way to sort of-“

“Tie it up?” Rose suggested, not wanting to be the one doing that job. The Doctor nodded, gulping when he took a looking at the snarling creature’s beady eyes and yellowed teeth. He didn’t like to judge based on appearance, but knowing how quickly and permanently that thing could tear him apart was nauseating.

“Can you do that telepathy thing again?” she asked him, he shook his head.

“Not now, it’s a bit more difficult now, and I never had full telepathy, I can only use it for a few seconds” he sighed. Rose hummed in thought, the Doctor beat her to it though, jolting in the way he usually did whenever he got an idea.

“What if I made a taser? Not actually a taser though, something a bit more sophisticated” he burbled. Rose nodded

“That could-“ her sentence was swiftly interrupted by the Craf slamming itself into the glass window between them.

“Bloody hell!” the Doctor blurted, jolting up from against the wall.

“I reckon it’ll work” Rose said, gingerly staring at the hulking mass staring her right in the face. The Doctor considered the other, slightly easier option. _Why not just kill them?_ But he shook his head. He wouldn’t think like that, he wouldn’t. He was The Doctor and he was better than that.

“We also need to figure out what to do with the rift, we need to study it somehow” He said, distracting himself from his darker train of thought. Rose nodded.

“I can help with that. We studied the rift when we were making the dimension cannon. We- well I thought that it could be a weak spot in the walls of the universe. Turn’s out it’s more of a wrinkle” The Doctor raised an eyebrow, impressed. She smiled bashfully.

“Stealing my thunder?”

“You bet” she joked. He grinned at her like a hapless idiot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this is taking ages, this is the first time ive written something like this before, anyway I should try and write faster next time


	11. Disturbance

Rose stood by nervously as the Doctor laid his hands on the temples of the Craf. It was bound to a chair, but she still kept herself on high alert. Jack and Ianto stood close by, Ianto sporting an impressive bandage. The Doctor was so far unsuccessfully trying to reach into the memories of the creature. He was never a great telepath, but surely he could do better than this.

“Doctor, no offence, but should we give up on the telepathy thing? It doesn’t seem to be working” Jack said, itching to avoid another situation like yesterday.

“Wait for just a bit. This is the best chance we have at finding out what they want” Rose insisted. The Doctor found it difficult to concentrate with all the background noise, and turned to give them an irritable stare. Then he tried to concentrate even harder than before. It was immensely difficult, he found that his mind was drifting off further and further the more he tried to focus only on the creature in front of him. He never used to do this.

“I don’t think it’s working” he sighed, releasing the creature’s head from his grip. It let out a soft wheeze and slumped forward in the chair. The Doctor realised something.

“It’s blocking me! The other times I’ve made telepathic contact, it’s been distracted, but this time it’s been fully focused on keeping any telepathic communication out!” he seemed very excited to know what was making his job harder.

“So basically we can’t do anything” Jack frowned.

“I don’t know why you care so much, you’re technically our prisoner” Rose said with a slightly aggressive inflection. Rose was in a particularly bad mood today, having had no sleep and not knowing what to do with the creature in front of them.

“Yeesh, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed” Jack grumbled. Earning himself a very sharp glare from Rose.

“I was researching, actually. I was looking at the possibility of building a temporal anomaly detection tool” she snapped.

“So that’s what you call it” Jack grinned, hoping that making a joke would lighten her mood, being snapped at wasn’t enjoyable. Rose flushed a little and opened her mouth to object, but not before being interrupted by the Doctor coughing loudly.

“ _Anyway,_ we need to find something to distract it, like one of those giant ham legs! Or those roast chickens, I like those.”

“I doubt we can reuse it afterwards, did you see what those things can do to a person?” Ianto winced a bit remembering his injury, not that he could have forgotten. He could have sworn the Doctor looked dismayed.

“So who’s going to Tesco?” Rose asked, looking at Jack specifically. He shook his head.

“I’m a prisoner, prisoners don’t do shopping runs, plus I’m _physically compromised_ ” he waved his injury in the air. Rose sighed and turned to the Doctor, who muttered something about _suspension_ and _monitor the Craf_. Realising she had to trudge through the cold Cardiff morning, she let out a long groan.

“I’m so gonna kill you later” she said to him.

“Get some coffee while you’re out there, you’re no fun when you’re a grouch” Jack said to her as she dragged herself out into the dank corridor connecting to the tourist centre.

“Now, someone help me find some Rope or something” The Doctor said, turning around briefly.

“We don’t have rope” Ianto replied, gesturing to the copious amounts of _stuff_ sitting in an organised mess close by. The Doctor groaned

“Wires?”

“This is under impressive for a secret alien fighting organisation. _Organisation_ being the key word here” Jack smirked, only to be met with derision from the two members of said organisation.

“We have cable ties, and some alien tech, there could be some in that. Or there might be something lying around in here”

“You’re telling me that we have _cable ties_ when we could have brought rope, which is infinitely more useful! Bloody hell” The Doctor muttered that last part. After Ianto gingerly handed him a pile of broken technology, The Doctor started pulling wires of rope adjacent materials rather violently, and grumbling under his breath about how it could have been so much easier.

“Is there something about Cardiff that just pisses people off? Because it feels like there’s a vibe here” Jack filled the tense silence.

“Cardiff is… fine” Ianto said, weakly. The Doctor responded by not responding, collecting offcuts of wire in a heap on the ground. Jack raised his eyebrows.

“Once you’ve seen New Vegas, 21st century Earth is kind of lost on you”

“You never know, Good company is all that really matters’” The Doctor said, with a wry smile. Jack could tell from the soft look on his face, exactly who ‘good company’ was.

“So, tell me more about yourself, Doctor”

“I could ask you the same thing, Captain” he responded

“Quid pro quo?” Jack persisted. He had a strange curiosity about the mysterious couple who apparently knew him in another universe.

“Can you pass me those?” The Doctor asked Ianto, pointing to a toolset, he would need it to make this rig.

Rose grimaced as she carried a small bag of groceries through the bitingly cold air. She had a coffee in hand, the barista had made it too bitter, and she screwed up her face when she drank it.

“I cannot wait to sit by a fireplace” she muttered to herself. As she walked through the plaza, she felt a strange sense that something was _wrong_. She whipped around, wondering if she was just imagining, maybe the mist was making her paranoid, or maybe it was the distinct lack of people. “I’m just imagining things” she said, it didn’t reassure her, and the feeling of wrongness only seemed to increase with each passing second. Finally, she stopped, and decided to take a proper look, if only to soothe her paranoia.

“What do you think is taking Rose so long?” Jack asked, it had to have been a good 45 minutes since she left, theoretically she should have been back 20 minutes ago.

“Maybe the lines were long” Ianto suggested, at this point all three of them were standing around and waiting, the rig completed and ready to use. The Doctor couldn’t shake a strange off feeling that had crept up on him, and felt an instinct to go out and see what was wrong, something had to be.

“I don’t think so, mind the creature. I’m going out there” he said, hastily rushing through the large space, not before stubbing his toes on a large box and cursing loudly. Ianto couldn’t help sighing at the unprofessionalism.

The Doctor’s instincts were confirmed when he emerged out into the plaza and that small little off feeling turned into a sort of nausea. A temporal disturbance, a big one at that. The other times there was only one Craf, but this must have done something significantly more drastic. In the middle of the large space, he could see Rose, who had spotted him at the same time.

“Rose? What’s going on?” he asked her, she shook her head as if exiting a trance.

“It’s… nothing, I was just spacing out” but there was a look in her eyes, definelty not a spaced out look. The Doctor responded with a withering stare.

“Alright, it’s stupid but it’s feels like something’s _wrong_. I can’t put my finger on it though…” The Doctor frowned a little.

“That’s not right… You shouldn’t be able to pick up on temporal disturbances” he said, thoughtfully.

“What?”

“Your biology prevents you from having the time sense to pick up on temporal anomalies of any kind. It’s just not possible”

“Ok, so is that bad?”

“No, well, I don’t actually know” Rose groaned a little at that response.

“Nine hundred years…” she mumbled to herself with more than a little annoyance.

“Hey! I can’t know everything”

“I could _die_ ” she said, before pausing and realising that while she had been distracted momentarily, something had changed in the air, or the atmosphere, she didn’t know. It was unsettling. “Nevermind about that actually. I think that we have slightly bigger issues”

“What?”

“Look behind you. I think that temporal disturbance goes both ways” when he turned, he saw a large group of Craf, all looking dazed and more than a little confused.

“While they’re distracted, we should-“ before he could finish his sentence he was on his feet, being pulled along by the wrist. If he wasn’t in danger of dying, he would have laughed.

“Finally back in the old routine” Rose huffed, once they had reached the boardwalk which sufficiently hid them from view. He grinned at her then.

“It’s like we never stopped”

When Jack and Ianto finally heard Rose and the Doctor return, they were surprised to see both of them huffing and puffing like steam engines.

“What have _you_ been doing?”

“A nice midmorning jog, great for the cardiovascular system” Jack looked at Rose and received a shrug as she rushed to assist him with the creature.

“What do you need?” she asked, and he pointed behind him to the mess of wires that had been turned into a lacklustre rope. “Seriously?”

“Alright, next time we’ll pack a rope!” Ianto growled.

“Definitely some kind of vibe” Jack muttered under his breath.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry about the accidental hiatus, I may have gotten distracted/had writer's block so I lost my motivation yikes


End file.
